

Copyright N" 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


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WHO THEN IS THIS 

A STUDY OF THE PERSONALITY 

- 

OF JESUS: BY HARRIS G. HALE 

MINISTER OF THE LEYDEN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS 



MCMV 

THE PILGRIM PRESS: BOSTON 
NEW YORK & CHICAGO 



3T3C6- 

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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

I wo Copies Received 

APR 19 1905 

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Copyright, 1905, 
Harris G. Hai.e 


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PREFACE 


This book has grown out of a detailed study 
of the Gospel according to Mark, as the earli- 
est existing source of information about the 
life of Jesus. The study developed a point of 
view, and turned attention to one phase of the 
great subject which was opened. There can 
be no doubt that the life of Jesus is hereafter 
to be studied from the standing-point of per- 
sonality. This is to be the new approach to a 
new understanding of the significance of the 
Master’s life. Immense possibilities of unfold- 
ing truth lie in this direction. If this book can 
help any in taking a single step toward this 
new understanding, the hope of the author 
will be fulfilled. 

The book is not intended to be a technical 
theological treatise. Its thought is couched 
in popular terms. While it is meant to direct 
the understanding of the reader along a certain 
upward path, it is also meant to serve in a 
devotional way by bringing the imagination 
and heart of the reader nearer to the Master. 

The author wishes to acknowledge his in- 
debtedness to Professor Edward Y. Hincks of 
Andover Theological Seminary, and to Rev- 
erend Daniel Evans of Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, for valuable suggestions. 

Harris Grafton Hale 
Brookline, Massachusetts 
April 1905 




CONTENTS 


I. 

Personality .... 

9 

II. 

The Point of View . 

23 

III. 

The Development of Jesus 

4i 

IV. 

The Development of Jesus 



by Acquisition . 

5i 

V. 

The Development of Jesus 



by Decision 

67 

VI. 

The Development of Jesus 



by Experience 

83 

VII. 

The Development of Jesus 



by Sacrificial Love , 

95 

VIII. 

The Development of Jesus: 



The Goal .... 

hi 

IX. 

Jesus and the Passer-by 

121 

X. 

Jesus with Nature . 

135 

XI. 

The Eloquence of Jesus . 

149 

XII. 

Jesus and His Temptations . 

1 59 

XIII. 

The Mind of Jesus . 

i73 

XIV. 

Jesus as a Teacher . 

189 

XV. 

The Will of Jesus . 

201 

XVI. 

Jesus under Failure . 

217 

XVII. 

Jesus in Success 

229 

XVIII. 

The Authority of Jesus' Will 

241 

XIX. 

The Joy of Jesus 

257 

XX. 

Jesus as a Friend 

273 

XXI. 

The Sympathy of Jesus . 

287 

XXII. 

Jesus as a Man of Prayer 

297 

XXIII. 

The Self-Confidence of Jesus 

3°7 

XXIV. 

The Self-Assertion of Jesus . 

321 

XXV. 

Jesus as a Mystic 

335 

XXVI. 

The Effects of Jesus’ Presence 

345 

XXVII. 

Notable Expressions of Jesus’ 



Personality . . . . 

359 

XXVIII. 

Who Then is This . 

37i 









































































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PERSONALITY 



































I 

PERSONALITY 

That strange, subtle combination of qualities 
which differentiates one person from another, 
we call personality. This is not the scientific 
use of the word; it is not the legal use; it is 
the popular use. The personality of a man is 
that great total of characteristics which makes 
him what he is. We feel the stirrings of a 
deep emotion, and are borne as upon fleet wings 
out of our lower selves into those higher realms 
where our finer, diviner resolves meet and greet 
and attract us, as we listen to the flame-touched 
words of a great orator. We sit by dying 
embers long into the night, while another soul 
touches, thrills, electrifies our own through the 
vibrant medium of friendship. In either case 
we go away to tell our neighbors of the richness 
and wonder of that personality which has found 
and moved us. A great personality exerts a 
wonderful and indescribable charm. It radiates 
warmth; it creates an atmosphere; it breathes 
out enthusiasm; it almost emits light; its ap- 


ii 


12 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


proach is like the approach of a king in his 
beauty ; for in its train are buoyancy, optimism, 
joy, courage, sunlight. Imagination has not 
far to go to find the halo to put about its head. 

The study of personality is more fascinating 
than the study of light, for while it sheds over 
us its transparent beauty and apparently simple 
charm, when we begin to look at it through the 
prism of analysis, we find that it breaks up 
into more hues than those of the rainbow. 
While its greatest power is exercised when it 
is streaming in unanalyzed, it becomes more 
beautiful and more wonderful when seen in its 
elemental forces. It has infinite varieties. As 
it passes before us incarnate in the lives which 
we daily touch, its variations are more than 
kaleidoscopic. We are looking at something 
which we are certain must somehow be under 
law. Yet it seems to defy all law. While we 
study it, it is so elusive that no categories 
which we can invent will begin to include the 
total of it. It is so mysterious that no explora- 
tion of thought has ever gone to the farther 
side of it. Yet it is the ultimate reality of 
human existence, and as such always offers 
fresh and interesting fields for investigation. 


PERSONALITY 


13 

Because it is inexhaustible, it is forever fas- 
cinating. That line of Pope’s can never be 
revised, nor can the truth in it ever be super- 
seded : “The proper study of mankind is man .” 1 

That is a very marvelous time in the life of a 
child when he first comes to recognize his own 
personality. He has long been speaking the 
word “I” and the word “You,” but he has not 
looked over into that abyss which separates the 
“I” from the “You.” Those animal forces 
which underlie all human life have been work- 
ing within him. They have been supreme, until 
some day there comes a mighty change, a 
change of the profoundest significance. The 
old writing, in the sign-language of savagery, 
has been erased, and over it has been written 
another story, in the intelligible terms of our 
common human life. That child nature pre- 
sents another picture. There has been a re- 
arrangement of the figures. The old animal 
forces are still there in all their activity and 
potency and vigor, but the wonder of it is 
that they are no longer supreme. The ancient 
prophecy has been fulfilled, that “A little child 
shall lead them.” a That word “I” has been 
1 “Essay on Man.” 8 Isaiah 11:6. 


14 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


spoken with a new and mighty meaning. 
There is a consciousness of mastery. With 
that new and masterful utterance, the child has 
become an individual in God's world. His 
personality has asserted itself. He has been 
born into the great human family. 

Through personality a man stands apart 
from the rest of the world. Through personal- 
ity a man also becomes closely related to the 
world. The growth of personality from child- 
hood to maturity is the unfolding of these two 
elements. As the child becomes the youth and 
the youth becomes the man, the sense of self 
is constantly intensified. He sees the moat 
grow broader and the wall grow higher which 
separate him from his brother men, as the cita- 
del of his own selfhood is being reared through 
the years. He recognizes an increasing differ- 
ence between himself and other men. The 
uniqueness of his own life is appreciated. He 
is sometimes appalled at the isolation which 
personality implies. 

If, however, the man grasps the true mean- 
ing of this fact, he sees that that personality 
which isolates him from the world, also brings 
him into the closest relation with the world. 


PERSONALITY 


15 


That majestic citadel which is being built 
presents its impassable moat and its impreg- 
nable walls, not that it may offer defiance to 
the region which lies about it, but that through 
its very strength it may serve that region bet- 
ter. The higher wall and tower rise, the 
broader is the stretch of country within which 
hamlets and farm lands are safe. Indeed this 
is but one of a great system of fortresses which 
are meant to bind a vast and varied country 
into unity. Each fortress must be at peace 
with all others, cooperating with them, that the 
world may be at rest. So the man, in propor- 
tion as he becomes more profoundly conscious 
of himself, becomes more profoundly conscious 
of his relation to all others, of his obligation to 
the world, and of the truth that the highest 
meanings of personality are found in com- 
munion. The mature man, while aware 
of the imposing isolation of his own person- 
ality, feels himself caught up into a great 
system, and knows himself only as a part 
of that system. He is himself a world, but 
a world among many worlds, and revolves 
with them around a central sun. He has 
left his “outgrown shell by life's unresting 


16 WHO THEN IS THIS 

sea,” 1 and has taken possession of the universe. 
The highest personality, while most isolated, 
has its citizenship in the universe, and sees it- 
self only in its relations with the universe. 

The power of personality is the greatest of 
all human forces. Indeed it is comparable with 
the force of gravitation, since all human life 
comes under its authoritative sway. In so far 
as history is the record of what individuals 
have done, it is a witness to the more than 
regal power of personality. In secular history, 
from Xerxes the Persian and Alexander the 
Macedonian to Bismarck the German and 
Gladstone the Englishman, we are led through 
the centuries, along the currents of great move- 
ments by the towering figures of great per- 
sonalities. There has never been any signifi- 
cant movement among the nations which has 
not been dominated by personality. In Chris- 
tian history from Paul to Phillips Brooks, the 
way is made plain to us by the colossal forms 
of those who have moved men and shaken 
empires by the power of personality. Peter the 
Hermit, making Europe ring and echo to his 
words, “God wills it,” and directing the vast 

ii. _ 1 Holmes, “The Chambered Nautilus.” 


PERSONALITY 


17 


movements of the Crusades, is one among 
many. The history of the world is the history 
of leadership. The secret of leadership is per- 
sonality. 

The power of personality has been felt by 
every one. It is as large a factor in the 
world's life today as in the receding centuries. 
We are always ready to be ruled by it. We 
delight to have it near. It exerts its magic 
charm over us, and we are changed. We 
sometimes call it “magnetism, ” by which we 
mean that it attracts us. Devotion to a great 
cause usually finds its reason in some man 
who incarnates the appeals of that cause. The 
confidence we repose in a business enterprise 
springs from confidence in one who leads it. 
Friendship has its roots in personality. The 
home has its charm and eternal power through 
personality. A great personality is the only 
king with an undisputed title, and we are al- 
ways ready to acknowledge its supremacy and 
come under its sovereignty. 

How far does the possibility of the power of 
personality reach? When we rightly estimate 
and frankly acknowledge what it has already 
done, we are forced to confess that we have no 


18 WHO THEN IS THIS 

unit which can measure its possible power. 
No psychological foot-pound or volt can ever 
estimate this force. By its fruits must it be 
known. Its fruits must be counted in terms of 
eternal friendships made, happy homes un- 
shaken, societies formed and knit together, 
nations lifted to purer ideals, a race converted 
to a new religion, a church reformed, a hu- 
manity redeemed. For truth itself becomes 
dynamic in its incarnations. 

Only in part does personality submit itself to 
be analyzed. The most obvious, and the most 
superficial element in it is physical. A man 
makes his impression upon his fellows by his 
splendid, towering form, by an imposing figure, 
by a graceful manner, by a face which greets 
all approaches with a smile, by a hand-grasp 
which is firm and thrilling, by a keenness or 
calmness of the eye which penetrates or 
soothes. There is the overflow of animal 
spirits, and the glow of unquenchable enthu- 
siasm. But these make up an enduring element 
in personality only when they are the physical 
symbols of a greatness which is within. If 
these are the revelation of the inner man, they 
help us in our final estimate of him, not else. 


PERSONALITY 


19 


For we soon forget a face and a form, when 
we have really touched a heart. 

So far beyond the physical element in per- 
sonality as to be in another realm lie the ele- 
ments which are unseen. There is the sympa- 
thetic heart, which, as by instinct, enters into 
the meaning of others’ doubts and fears and 
troubles. There is the clear-thinking mind, 
which, like a sharp knife, cuts through the rind 
of appearances and penetrates to the core of 
reality, the mind which is as honest with itself 
as it is frank with others. There is the power 
of the will, which, like another Cromwell, sees 
difficulties, but overleaps them, and carries with 
it another will less firm and independent than 
itself. There is the intensity and singleness of 
purpose, which, like the telescope, brings the 
object of search near, and makes it seem attain- 
able. These are some of the elements which go 
to make up personality and give it its place and 
influence in human life. Let these be united in 
a single person, and then touched by the fervor 
of a religious motive and made bright and 
warm by the glow of a great spiritual purpose, 
and you have a force in human life of illim- 
itable scope and immeasurable intensity. 


20 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


While we have been trying to analyze per- 
sonality, we have lost it; for, like life itself, it 
eludes us under the dissecting knife. It is 
greater than the sum of those parts of it which 
we are able to separate from one another. 
While there is something in it which is beyond 
analysis, there is also something in it which is 
beyond accounting for. Through his ancestry 
a man receives a part of it. But there is some- 
thing in personality which ancestry utterly fails 
to account for. Surroundings and education 
play their part in the formation of it. He must 
indeed confess, “I am a part of all that I have 
met .” 1 But when we add these to ancestry, 
and count up all the causes, we have not enough 
to create the effect. The attempt to explain the 
fact of any great personality must always end 
in that question : “ Whence hath this man these 
things ?” 9 

The impossibility of overtaking personality 
by any definition, however swift of foot and 
keen of eye, is seen again in the fact that it has 
a thousand different forms of manifestation. 
Like the rainbow, when you have arrived at the 
place where once it was, you find that it has 
1 Tennyson, * Ulysses.” * Mark 6 : 2 . 


PERSONALITY 


21 


appeared elsewhere. Yet each form and mani- 
festation has its own beauty and charm, and 
exercises its own fascination. Sometimes this 
wonderful mystery of power incarnates itself in 
the easily accessible, approachable, genial man. 
We feel our hearts warming in the presence of 
such a man. He wraps us in the folds of his 
great geniality. Sometimes it comes in the 
form of the shrinking, timid nature, who, how- 
ever, has such greatness of soul and such gen- 
erosity of heart, that we are drawn by a power 
irresistible. Sometimes it appears in the living 
figure of one who is cold in contact, and repel- 
lent to approach, but whose force of intellect 
and purpose is so commanding that it takes 
us up and carries us by its sheer strength. In 
him is inspiration. His strength becomes our 
reliance. There is the personality of reserve. 
There is the personality of easy communication. 
It is impossible to seek in the same elements the 
attractiveness of Addison and that of Gold- 
smith. Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Ed- 
wards both exercised a power over men, yet the 
causes of that power, though resident in the 
fact of personality, are so far removed from 
each other as to be impossible of comparison. 


22 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


The power of personality, its influence in his- 
tory, its charm today, do not lie in any of the 
elements which make it up, but in its total 
effect. In the presence of a great personality 
we are aware that we are dealing with some- 
thing which is beyond analysis, something 
which is altogether unaccountable. There 
stands the man before us, and in the total of 
his qualities, unanalyzed and unaccounted for, 
lies his fascination over us. We acknowledge 
his power and submit to be led. 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


\ 


II 

THE POINT OF VIEW 


Jesus of Nazareth was a man among men. 
He was different from other men. But he was 
different from them, not because he had differ- 
ent facts of life to deal with, but because he 
dealt with the common facts of life in a dif- 
ferent way. He said things differently, he did 
things differently, while he lived in the midst 
of common human experiences. It was not by 
removing himself from these common experi- 
ences, but by meeting them in his own way, 
that people came to notice that he was different 
from themselves, and from any whom they had 
ever seen. It is precisely in this way that every 
personality emerges from the crowd, and makes 
its definite impression. A study of the pictures 
of Tissot will produce a wonderfully vivid 
impression of the stern, hard facts of life which 
Jesus had to face. There is an almost terrible 
realism in those pictures. In the portraiture 
of Jesus himself little spiritual insight is shown. 
But in the exhibition of the conditions which 


25 


26 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


surrounded Jesus, there is probably a nearer 
approach to the truth than has been made by 
any other painter. There Jesus is seen face 
to face with the demoniac; meeting the crowd 
at the gate of Nain; sitting at the table of the 
Pharisee, while those who pass are bitter in 
their scorn; taking the little child upon his 
knee, while he sits talking with his disciples. 
We are made almost to share with him hunger, 
thirst and weariness. We see him in the midst 
of the experiences of joy and pain, of pity and 
of grief. Our imagination almost puts us into 
the throng and press, as of those who touched 
him there. We even enter into his loneliness 
in the barren places of Judea or Galilee. We 
realize that the difference between Jesus and 
other men was a difference based upon the way 
in which he dealt with the common facts of 
life. 

Upon the people who lived in his own time 
Jesus produced a distinct impression. They 
thought of him as a man. They had not begun 
to explain him in any theological way. For 
there he was before them, in the ordinary 
events of life, a man among them. Upon the 
multitude which at times followed him, he 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


2 7 


created a distinct impression. Upon the sick 
people who came to him to be cured, he 
had already, before they came, produced some 
impression. Upon the Pharisees he produced 
an impression. Upon the disciples he produced 
an impression. What were these impressions ? 
How did these men come to their conclusions 
about him? They did not first have a theory 
about him, and then study him with that theory 
in mind. They first studied him as they saw 
him passing, at the act of healing, in the busi- 
ness of teaching. All their theories about him 
were based upon such day by day observation. 
They felt an influence go forth from him. 
They were drawn by this motive or that to join 
the crowd which followed him. They gazed 
upon him as he sat at meat. They recognized 
in him certain peculiarities. They came under 
the influence of his personality. Whatever 
Jesus was, whether man or God, he was man- 
ifest to men through his personality. That 
total of charm, of fascination, of power, some- 
times repellent and sometimes magnetic, with 
the glow of joy and the vigor of life, was the 
personality of Jesus. Whatever explanation of 
that personality men made was based upon the 


28 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


primary fact that Jesus was a man. For “what 
only a man could do remained undone unless a 
man did it.” 1 

There have been many lives of Jesus. Chris- 
tian scholarship has always looked with rever- 
ence toward this subject as the highest to 
which it could attain. That supreme figure in 
all earth’s history has been drawn with wonder- 
ful accuracy by the sharpened point of the 
scholar’s pencil. But we are somewhat startled 
to remember in how large measure these lives 
of Jesus have been concerned with the outward 
events of his career. Where was Jesus born? 
What was the chronology of his life? How 
long was his public ministry? Was it early or 
late in that ministry that he cast the traders out 
of the temple ? These and other problems have 
been diligently sought out, and some of them 
finally solved. Now we have come to the time 
when we are taking a new step. We face new 
problems more difficult, and also more fasci- 
nating, and, shall it not be added, even more 
useful than these. We have been dwelling in 
the holy place of this temple of God. Now we 

1 Fairbairn, “The Place of Christ in Modern The- 
ology.” 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


29 


desire to push aside the veil with reverent 
hands, and look into the holy of holies. We 
long to see the inner man. Happy as we are 
to be made sure through scholarship where 
Nazareth was, and where the synagogue in 
which Jesus one Sabbath, after he had read 
from the Scriptures, announced that in him 
were all these things fulfilled, we ask yet one 
more thing of scholarship. We ask it to go to 
those who were assembled there, and learn the 
effect which these words had upon them; to 
help us look at the face of Him who sat there 
teaching, and to interpret for us the meanings 
of those gestures and those eyes; to discover 
the man behind the form. We cannot now be 
satisfied until, so far as possible, we interpret 
word into thought, action into motive, deed 
into will, and tears into emotion, that we may 
know the mind of Jesus, the will of Jesus and 
the emotions of Jesus. We have sat with joy 
at the feet of those who have taught us of the 
man, Jesus of Nazareth. His life has been 
read to us by them, and is ever a new and 
beautiful story. We have listened with eager- 
ness to those who have tried to interpret him 
for us in terms of his relation to God, and have 


30 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


taught us of the person of Christ. Now we 
come asking to be allowed to search into the 
thoughts and the heart and the hopes and the 
motives of this man, as these forces of his life 
were brought to bear upon the common facts 
of our human experience. We want to learn 
something about the personality of Jesus. 

To Christian faith and Christian practise, 
this is of the utmost importance. For the differ- 
ence between Simon and Andrew and the mod- 
ern disciple is that while the first were called to 
follow the Master from village to village, and 
to share his physical experiences, the second 
is called to follow him from hope to hope and 
thought to thought and emotion to emotion, 
and to share with him the experiences of the 
soul. It were blessed to follow him in his 
journeys, as “he stedfastly set his face to go 
to Jerusalem.” 1 But it is only possible for us, 
and indeed far better, to follow him in the 
processes of his thinking as he ascended 

“The great world’s altar-stairs, 

That slope through darkness up to God.”* 

It is there, and there only, that we can walk 
with him. Surely this cannot be denied us, to 

1 Luke 9: 51. 2 Tennyson, “ In Memoriam.” 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


3i 


know enough of those thoughts of the Master 
which lay behind his belief in men and in God ; 
that will which lay behind his patient effort; 
that emotion which lay behind his tears, or 
which was oftentimes “too deep for tears,” so 
that we can take this sublime upward journey 
with him. For true Christian living, therefore, 
and for real Christian discipleship, it is neces- 
sary to know much of the personality of Jesus. 
Only through such knowledge can the disciple 
think with him his thoughts, and love with him 
his loves, and do with him his deeds, and those 
even greater, according to his promise. Of all 
the fundamental elements of the nature of 
Jesus must that be true which a recent writer 
has affirmed of one of those elements: “The 
translatableness of the mind of the Master into 
the mind of the disciple is a cardinal truth of 
Christian faith.” 1 

From Jesus’ own words about himself we 
cannot expect to gather all that is contained 
in his relation to men. The words of any 
man about himself must of necessity be very 
meager. They are nothing when they stand 
alone. At best they are only hints of that 
1 Gordon, “Ultimate Conceptions of Faith.” 


32 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


which is within. The words of a man are less 
the interpretation of his deeds and his char- 
acter, than his deed and character are interpre- 
tations of his words. Whatever Jesus was, and 
whatever his words, his place in human life 
could never have been fixed, and the opinion 
which a man is to have of him today can never 
be determined by his words alone. Jesus must 
be judged by the total effect he has made. His 
place must be determined by the adding up of 
the sum of words and deeds and thoughts and 
emotions and will. Even this is not all. To 
these must be added that indefinable charm, 
that subtle influence, which, when taken with 
these others, make up his personality. 

When Jesus at Caesarea Philippi asked his 
disciples, “Who do men say that I am ?” 1 he 
was asking for the opinion of those who had 
seen enough of him to form a tentative judg- 
ment. When he asked his disciples, “Who say 
ye that I am ?” 2 he was asking for the opin- 
ion of those who had seen enough of him to 
form a final judgment. In both cases what 
must we suppose was the basis of the judg- 
ment? It was the total effect which he had pro- 
1 Mark 8 : 27. 2 Mark 8 : 29. 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


33 


duced upon those who had seen him, walked 
and eaten with him, met him upon the street 
and talked with their friends about him. In the 
case of the disciples the judgment was based 
upon close and intimate acquaintance. While 
as yet he had no disciples definitely chosen, he 
had exercised an infinite charm, a personal 
power, a strong attraction upon certain men. 
These men, not so much by any wonderful 
deeds which they had seen, nor by any claims 
which they had heard him make, as by the 
strong, indescribable fascination which he 
exercised over them, were drawn with mighty 
power to him. To the sovereignty of this per- 
sonal power they gladly submitted themselves. 
They rejoiced to be led of him. They went 
with him day after day. They heard his teach- 
ing. They saw his daily life. They looked him 
in the face. They felt the thrill of his touch. 
They heard the tones of his voice. They saw 
him in difficult situations. They noted the con- 
fidence with which he carried himself. Their 
minds caught something of the light of his 
intellect. Their wills were made strong by con- 
tact with a stronger. Their sympathies were 
deepened by the knowledge of his. After all 


34 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


this, Jesus turned to them, as they were on 
the way, saying, “Who say ye that I am ?” 1 
Through the weeks and months of that study 
and intercourse, their judgment had been shap- 
ing itself. Out of the dim and inarticulate con- 
fusion of their thoughts about him, one voice 
had been gradually growing distinct. It was 
gathering strength to speak. Only after those 
months was it ready to dominate and outcry all 
other voices. Then the disciples were ready to 
say, “Thou art the Christ.” 1 

This points out the way to any sane judg- 
ment about Jesus. The approach to any ex- 
planation of him must be through knowledge 
of the man himself. The historic figure must 
be seen. All forces which went to make up his 
life must be counted. His words, his deeds, 
his face, his sympathies, his plans in life, the 
power of his will, the force of his intellect, the 
mystic glow which pervaded these other quali- 
ties, all must be reckoned with. Before this 
is done, no sound judgment of him can be 
formed. While this is being done, during the 
weeks and months of contact with the historic 
Jesus, thoughts about him will be shaping 

1 Mark 8 : 29. 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


35 


themselves, which will some time dominate all 
others, and will speak their final judgment. 
Only after knowing the personality of Jesus 
can one dare to answer the question, “Who 
say ye that I am ? ” 1 

The romantic mood of religion has removed 
Jesus from his historic setting. We have ideal- 
ized him before we have known him whom we 
were idealizing. Why does a man say that 
Jesus was divine? Or why does he say that 
Jesus was only human? If for reasons theo- 
logical, he is making his theory before he knows 
his facts. If for reasons traditional, he is build- 
ing upon another man's foundation. If he 
dares not ask himself why, he is a special 
pleader without a cause to plead. Each man’s 
judgment of the Son of man must be based 
upon what he was, and not upon what the 
centuries have said that he was. Every man, 
therefore, who is to dare to make a judgment 
must go back into that century in which he 
lived, and meet him there face to face; must 
know how he did things, and how he said 
things; must know what it meant to have his 
eyes shine upon him, and his smile lighten; 

1 Mark 8: 29. 


36 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


must know the power of that will, the depths 
of that sympathy, and the keenness of that 
thought. He must listen to his words, and 
gather not only the meaning of them, but the 
power of that life which uttered them. Not 
through the romantic mood of religion can 
Jesus be judged, but through a study of the 
Gospels, with the purpose constantly in mind 
to discover and feel the power of Jesus’ per- 
sonality. 

In going back to the Gospels as the great 
source, we do not forget that they did not 
create the impression of the personality of 
Jesus upon the earliest believers. They were 
in fact themselves created by that impression. 
They were in the first instance results, not 
causes. Nor do we forget that another stream 
of influence went out from Jesus among early 
believers, the full scope of which was not com- 
passed by our Gospels. Of this influence Paul 
was the great result, as he became also the 
recorder of its power. These impressions, the 
great part of which have been lost, must have 
been essentially the same as those which 
the Gospels record. Certainly the personality 
which produced them was the same; and if 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


37 


at any point they differ from those which ap- 
pear in the Gospels, they must submit them- 
selves to be revised by that history which alone 
pretends to give us an orderly account of the 
personality of Jesus. The Gospels are for us 
the fountainhead of knowledge. 

The Gospel according to John is an avowed 
interpretation of Jesus. It adds to the other 
Gospels many valuable facts about his life. 
Perhaps its chronology is the best of all. But 
it is an interpretation of facts ; it is an explana- 
tion of the person. What position then shall 
the Gospel according to John hold in this study 
of Jesus from the side of his personality? Its 
explanation of Jesus is based upon the facts of 
Jesus’ life, for John was much with him, and 
was one of those who from observing facts had 
passed on to a theory about those facts. His 
judgment of Jesus is of the highest importance, 
since he was in a position of special advantage 
to see the man whom he afterward felt that he 
must explain. But because he has gone beyond 
the facts, his evidence is of a different sort from 
that given by the other Evangelists. His Gos- 
pel “is an authority of the first rank for answer- 
ing the question, What vivid views of Jesus’ 


38 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


person, what kind of light and warmth, did the 
Gospel disengage ?” 1 But we wish to catch 
that vivid view of Jesus' person for ourselves, 
that we may in an independent way disengage 
the light and warmth of it. We must therefore 
come to John’s Gospel as a worthy standard of 
comparison for our own judgment when that 
judgment has been formed by immediate con- 
tact with the facts of Jesus’ life. 

That the writers of the other Gospels had 
formed their own judgments of the person 
whom they describe we cannot question. But 
whatever their judgments, it is evident, from 
the story which they tell, that they went back 
of their judgment to the primary facts of that 
life. They tell their story with that “simple- 
minded veracity which is incapable of conceal- 
ment,” 2 and which shows no desire to magnify 
or distort. The personality of Jesus must 
therefore be studied in the simple stories of the 
first three Gospels. There we meet the man 
Jesus face to face, we walk with him and talk 
with him, and fall under the influence of his 
presence. No man can go away from such 

1 Harnack, “ What is Christianity ? ” 2 F airbairn, “ The 

Place of Christ in Modern Theology.” 


THE POINT OF VIEW 


39 


familiar intercourse without attempting some 
explanation of the person whom he has come to 
know. By such a study of the Gospels there 
should emerge out of the dim recesses of the 
centuries a figure more real than any which 
theology can define, clearer than any which 
tradition can body forth, a figure unlike all 
others, a distinct personality. As he looks at 
that figure with a new conception of its rela- 
tion to him, the man must say : “See the Christ 
stand ! ” 1 


1 Browning, 


Saul.' 
























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































* 











THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 



Ill 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 

“I say that man was made to grow, not 
stop.” 1 This is one of those truths of which 
all men are aware, but which it takes a poet to 
put into words. Personality develops. How- 
ever large the element of mystery in it, no man 
is born with the fulness of it already upon him. 
The years serve to increase it as well as to 
reveal it. There can be no sound and impar- 
tial study of the personality of Jesus which 
builds upon the assumption that he was in full 
possession of all his powers from the beginning. 
That is an assumption which at once places him 
outside all the range of human thought, and all 
the possibility of usefulness as example. In 
the beginning of the Gospel history, Jesus is 
presented to us a helpless babe . 2 At the end of 
the Gospel history, Jesus is presented to us a 
full-grown man, in complete possession of all 
human faculties . 3 How did he pass from one 

1 Browning, “ A Death in the Desert.” 

2 Matthew 2 : 13. * Mark 12 . 


43 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


44 

state to the other? By what process did he 
reach the second, having started at the first? 
To suppose that at any one moment he emerged 
from the first into the second, is to make him 
utterly abnormal. It is also contrary to the 
evidence of history. We can come to a conclu- 
sion about the personality of Jesus which is 
consistent with, reason and with history, only 
when we try to follow that process by which he 
grew. Development is the only known path- 
way for human feet to tread to greatness. 
That pathway Jesus trod. 

The Gospels give their unquestionable tes- 
timony to this fact. They give us glimpses of 
him at all the important turning-points along 
this great highway of human life. To catch 
our first sight of him we must look into the 
manger . 1 Then twelve years pass, and how 
different he is, as he goes up to the temple . 2 
Eighteen years pass, and again how different 
he is, as he goes up to his baptism , 3 with all the 
buoyancy and hope of a fully consecrated life. 
Some months pass, and he is different again, 
and again greater, mightier, more wonderful in 

1 Luke 2:7. 2 Luke 2 : 42-46. 

8 Luke 3 : 21-23. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 


45 


his transfiguration . 1 Other months pass, and 
once more he is different, as he walks in the 
deep shadow of his doom, and yet again 
greater, now mightiest, most wonderful, for 
he is moving toward his cross . 2 “So many 
highest superlatives achieved by man are fol- 
lowed by new higher; and dwindle into com- 
paratives and positives .’ 1 3 Jesus passed forever 
up, and each moment seemed superlative, until 
at last the superlative of all superlatives was 
reached. 

We can find evidence neither in human expe- 
rience nor in the Gospel histories that Jesus 
was fully aware of the majestic meaning of his 
mission from the first. He had a glimpse of 
it , 4 but it was as of a vision which was some 
time to be fully realized. His expression of it 
at the age of twelve was not the same as his 
later expression of it. There is a deeper note 
in the words : “All things have been delivered 
unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth 
the Son, save the Father; neither doth any 
know the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. 

1 Mark 9:2. 2 Mark 10 : 33. 

8 Carlyle, “French Revolution.” 4 Luke 2 : 49. 


46 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest,” 1 a deeper note 
than in the words : “Wist ye not that I must be 
in my Father’s house ? ” 2 So he passed from 
stage to stage of his majestic upward journey, 
and each stage had in it a deeper and mightier 
content than that which went before. 

A wonderful measure of precocity may be 
supposed. This does not take us out of the 
range of human experience. Great men have 
often shown very early in life that the seeds 
of their future greatness of personality were 
already bursting and breaking through the 
ground with promise. We are astonished to 
read in a description of Skiddaw, written by 
John Ruskin at the age of ten, the following 
lines : 

“All that art can do 

Is nothing beside thee. The touch of man 
Raised pigmy mountains, but gigantic tombs. 

The touch of Nature raised the mountain’s brow* 

But made no tombs at all.” 3 

This is the morning light of Ruskin’s day, and 
the same light at its fulness was the noon of 
Ruskin’s greatness. 

1 Matthew ii : 27, 28. 2 Luke 2 : 49. 

* Collingwood, “ The Life of John Ruskin.” 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 


47 


We read that when Jesus went up to the 
temple at the age of twelve, “all that heard 
him were amazed at his understanding and 
his answers.” 1 But we read also, in the verse 
which just precedes, that those who sought 
him, “found him in the temple, sitting in the 
midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and 
asking them questions.” 2 That was an attitude 
toward the teachers in Israel totally different 
from that which he assumed on the last Tues- 
day of his life, when, after he had been in 
opposition to the scribes and elders, and had 
answered all their questions, “no man after that 
durst ask him any question.” 8 The first was 
the dawning of a great light: the second was 
the shining forth of that light in its noonday 
clearness and power. 

The Gospel according to Luke refers directly 
to Jesus’ development during his childhood. 
The reference is brief, but enters into some 
details. We are first told that “the child 
grew.” 4 This is the general statement. Then 
we pass to those different phases of his life 
which this development took hold upon. His 


1 Luke 2 : 47. 

3 Mark 12 : 34. 


2 Luke 2 : 46. 
‘Luke 2 : 40. 


48 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


physical growth 1 is mentioned, his growth in 
popularity , 1 his mental growth , 1 his religious 
growth . 2 This is only the opening of the 
door by the Evangelist, who then bids us come 
in to follow with him those events which are 
themselves both the record and the result of 
the development of Jesus 1 personality. 

This growth does not imply imperfection. 
The perfect child must develop before he can 
come to the true measure of boyhood. The 
perfect boy must develop before he can come 
to the measure of manhood , 3 which must it- 
self develop before it finds itself complete. 
The river is a perfect river when it flows, a 
tiny streamlet, between the green banks of 
those meadows which lie under the evening 
shadows of the mountains. It is a perfect river 
when it goes dashing in tumult over the preci- 
pice. It is a perfect river when it hurries 
through those cities which it has made possible 
because it can turn the wheels of their indus- 
tries. It is a perfect river when it bears on its 
bosom the great ships which come to it from 
out the sea. But it is always changing, always 


1 Luke 2 : 52. 2 Luke 2 : 40. 

8 Gore, “ The Incarnation of the Son oi God. ! 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 


49 


growing. So also is personality. The five 
chapters now following will be devoted to a 
consideration of some of the methods by which 
the personality of Jesus developed. 






t 


* 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
ACQUISITION 





IV 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
ACQUISITION 

The world into which a child is born is full 
of mysteries. There are stupendous facts on 
every hand, which have no meaning to the new- 
born child, no existence. The period of human 
childhood is of necessity vastly extended be- 
cause of the marvelous complexity of the world 
which must be mastered before the child can 
be a man. The child must come into posses- 
sion of his world through the long process of 
acquisition, by touch, by measurements with 
arm and eye, by experiment. When we remem- 
ber the complete mastery which Jesus finally 
gained over the world, is it a wonder that his 
period of acquisition stretched itself out to the 
long span of thirty years ? Before the babe of 
Bethlehem could become the perfect man, that 
vast complexity of facts which make up the 
world and human life must be understood. 
What was the universe and its total circumfer- 
ence to that babe? The whole world's bitter- 
53 


54 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ness was no more than the roughness of the 
manger’s touch. There was no gentleness of 
sympathy beyond the softness of a mother’s 
hand. There was no such thing as fear, for 
all safety was at Mary’s breast. There was no 
sun except in Mary’s eyes, nor rising thereof 
except in the breaking of her smile. This was 
his first possession, his first world, his first uni- 
verse. Nazareth, Galilee, the lake, the river, 
the mountains, the sky, the stars, human life, 
with its greater bitterness and its larger sym- 
pathy, friendships, the world, heaven, God : all 
these must be acquired before the baby’s 
universe could become the man’s universe. 
From the first experience of babyhood up to 
the sermon on the mount, a world-wide phi- 
lanthropy, denunciations of hypocrisy, the 
knowledge of a world’s sin, and the doctrine 
and practise of self-sacrifice leading to the 
cross, how long the way which must be 
traveled ! 

That his ministry was the natural outcome 
of the years of acquisition cannot be doubted. 
This is the infrangible logic of human life. 
“The child is father of the man.” Jesus’ 
later teaching and example give evidence of 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 55 

such sincerity and such certainty as could have 
their origin only in experience. We have the 
right to reason back according to the universal 
laws of human character from the man to the 
boy. What he gave so freely during the period 
of his activity, he gained in the long discipline 
of the years of acquisition. You can as well 
separate a brook from its springs as a man 
from his childhood. “The distinct impression 
which the life of Jesus as a whole leaves upon 
us is that he gained his knowledge of outward 
events through the ordinary channels of infor- 
mation.” 1 Nor is this inconsistent with the 
statement which we have before made and 
the principle which we have laid down, that 
personality is essentially mysterious and inex- 
plicable. That contact with the world which 
we call education does not create personality. 
It takes the personality, which is mysterious 
and inexplicable, and shapes it. The earth, the 
air, the sunshine and the rain do not determine 
the nature of a tree, but it is by them that the 
tree comes from the seed. Contact with the 
world does not determine the nature of a man, 
but it takes the child and makes the man. 

1 Forrest, “The Christ of History and of Experience.” 


56 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


What were some of the means by which the 
child Jesus acquired his world? 

We must speak of his home. The home is 
the first of that broadening series of concentric 
circles which the child takes possession of. The 
throbbing, pulsing heart of the home, sending 
its own life through every member of that 
body, is the mother. Mother Mary, what shall 
we say of her? First, that the careless regard 
which she receives from the Protestant is 
almost as gross an error as the extravagant 
worship which she receives from the Roman 
Catholic. Of none others in this world can it 
be said so truly as of mothers, “By their fruits 
ye shall know them.” 1 To the Mother Mary 
must we look back with reverence through the 
life of her son. How much did Jesus gain from 
her? There is no human measure which can 
serve as unit for such results. All biography 
is built upon it, and yet no biography has ever 
defined or limited it. It is written of Saint 
Bernard, in a description of the great turning- 
point in his career, “He did it, plainly, under 
the impressions which the whole spirit and life 
of Aletta had left upon him.” 2 How rich must 

1 Matthew 7 : 16. 2 Storrs, “ Bernard of Clairvaux.” 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 5 7 


we believe was the inheritance of spirit and life 
which came upon the childhood and passed over 
into the manhood of Jesus from the Mother 
Mary! 

Next to the mother’s influence upon life is 
that of the father. Jesus called Joseph his 
father. That would be the most impossible of 
all suppositions which would cut off the later 
teaching of Jesus about fatherhood from the 
early reality of his life. No man could take as 
his symbol of God any word which was associ- 
ated with other than wisdom and love, gentle 
forbearance and gracious discipline. Such 
expressions from the teaching of Jesus as, 
“the will of my Father,” 1 “the promise of 
my Father,”* “glorify your Father,”* “your 
Father knoweth what things ye have need of,” 
“your Father is merciful,” 8 send back a light 
into his childhood by which we can read the 
story which has never been written. That 
fatherly love was such that without reserve, 
without a note of uncertainty or fear of mis- 
understanding, Jesus could carry it over to 
God. “What love begins can only be com- 

1 Matthew 7 : 21. 2 Luke 24 : 49. 3 Matthew 5 : 16. 

4 Matthew 6:8. 6 Luke 6 : 36. 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


58 

pleted by God .” 1 At the age of twelve, Jesus 
had already begun to translate his relation to 
God into the terms of this great human love, 
when he said : “Wist ye not that I must be in 
my Father's house ? ” 2 * Love had begun its 
work. God carried it to completion at the end 
of those thirty years. 

In the home Jesus also learned obedience, 
“that principle to which polity owes its stabil- 
ity, life its happiness, faith its acceptance, cre- 
ation its continuance.” 8 After that memorable 
experience in the temple, Jesus “went down 
with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was 
subject unto them.” 4 No child of untrained 
will could ever have gone on into manhood to 
grasp so noble a conception of the kingdom of 
God as Jesus had; could ever have acquired 
such mastery over men as he had who drove 
the money-changers from the temple; could 
ever have passed through Gethsemane with the 
words, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt ; ” 8 
could ever have “held his peace ” 8 before his 
accusers when on trial for his life. One of the 

1 Hugo, “ Les Miserables.” 2 Luke 2 : 49. 

• Ruskin, “ Seven Lamps of Architecture.” 

4 Luke 2 : 51. 8 Matthew 26 : 39. * Mark 14: 61. 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 59 


rich contributions to the life of Jesus in his 
home was the power to obey. 

Alongside this must be placed the learning of 
the great human meaning of 

“Love, without which the tongue 
Even of angels sounds amiss.” 1 

This quality is so wrought into the personality 
of Jesus as to be the very figure which appears 
in the final unfolding of that great pattern, 
taking as its form the form of the cross, which 
is nothing more than love when it has learned 
that 

“Such ever was love’s way : to rise, it stoops .” 2 
Large opportunity was offered to Jesus in his 
childhood to learn these vital lessons. In a 
home where a mother's love demanded the 
answer of love ; where a fatherly care and sac- 
rifice called upon the highest in childhood in 
response; where brothers and sisters made 
constant demand upon affection; where, after 
the death of Joseph, the responsibilities of an 
oldest child were placed upon him, Jesus found 
and used to their utmost those occasions for the 
growth of that love which like the mustard 

1 Matthew Arnold, “Heine’s Grave.” 

2 Browning, “ A Death in the Desert.” 


6o 


WHO THEN IS THIS , 


seed was some time to become a tree over- 
spreading the earth, and for the development 
of that spirit of sacrifice which must one day 
fulfil itself on Calvary. The significance of 
Jesus’ childhood and youth becomes stupen- 
dous when we remember that during those 
years he learned the vast and vital meaning of 
those three great facts of life : obedience, love, 
sacrifice. 

Jesus’ profound interest in nature also car- 
ries us back to his childhood. In the home 
Jesus acquired those qualities which were to 
relate him to God. In nature Jesus found that 
God to whom he was thus to be related. He 
stored his memory with pictures of pastoral 
life, pictures which he afterward painted with 
words of vivid exactness. The supreme beauty 
of the flowers attracted him . 1 * The pathos of 
the sparrow’s fall he was mindful of.* He 
noticed the husbandman’s care of the fig-tree/ 
and the shepherd’s interest in the counting of 
the folded flock . 4 He learned that on the 
mountains a man was near to God . 6 He looked 
along the broken outline of the hills and off 

1 Matthew 6 : 29. 2 Matthew 10 : 29. 8 Luke 13 : 8, 9. 

4 Luke 15:4. 6 Mark 9 : 2. 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 61 

into space, and caught his symbol of eternity . 1 
Lessons both of the minute interest of God 
and of the infinite greatness of God came in 
upon him as he wandered from his home at 
Nazareth in nature’s stately school. 

Another mighty influence in the shaping of 
the personality of Jesus was his contact with 
historic forms, the inspiration which he caught 
from his careful observation of the stately cere- 
monials and the impressive structures which 
were the symbols of his nation’s religion and 
history. The synagogue in Nazareth, where 
the boy’s leaping imagination first found its 
escape from the cell of the baby’s narrow inter- 
ests into the infinite freedom of God’s being, 
became thereby so dear to him, that one of his 
first impulses after he began his ministry was 
to go back to that place of tender and precious 
memory, to preach his own gospel of “release 
to the captives, recovering of sight to the 
blind” and “liberty for them that are bruised.” 2 

The most important incident of his boyhood 
was his visit to Jerusalem at the age of twelve ; 3 
just the age to which years of earlier childhood 
look forward with prophetic longing; that age 

1 Luke 16 : 17. 3 Luke 4 : 16, 18. 8 Luke 2 : 41-50. 


62 


WHO THEN IS THIS ' 


at which the life begins to reshape itself; that 
age which is most susceptible of impression; 
that age which casts its eye with curious eager- 
ness toward the future; that age at which the 
vital forces of the tender human plant cease to 
spend themselves in the mere production of 
the flower, and, as the petals fall, turn their 
energy to the development of the fruit. At 
just that age the splendid past of Israel's 
national life and religion spoke to Jesus in the 
form of the city Jerusalem, and the temple. He 
was not accustomed to such sights. But after 
the first wonder was past, his eyes kindled 
with a warmer, brighter flash, as he remem- 
bered that without those city walls had been 
fought battles which had turned the .tides of 
history ; that within those walls the stately pro- 
cessions of kings in the line of David had 
passed ; and that both within and without had 
been heard the cry of the great prophets of 
Israel. Wonder, memory, imagination, love 
centered about the temple, within the sacred 
courts of which was that holy of holies, the 
consummate symbol of the religious life of his 
people. Memories thronged his mind, imagina- 
tion broke away from all former limits, emo- 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 63 

tions thrilled his soul. There could have been 
no other result than that which is immediately 
recorded for us: “Jesus advanced in wisdom 
and stature, and in favour with God and 
men. 

Here was the great opportunity of his boy- 
hood. Questions had been thronging his mind : 
the meaning of Scripture, of the being of God, 
of his own life. Every child asks himself 
questions which he never puts to his parents. 
But here in this temple were the wise men of 
Israel. How beautiful, how natural, how like 
a child of twelve, a child of precocious mind, 
to forget all surroundings, and to be found “in 
the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, 
both hearing them, and asking them ques- 
tions” ! 2 Holman Hunt has succeeded in giv- 
ing us the best interpretation of “Christ among 
the Doctors.” The faces of those teachers who 
surround Jesus are all touched with thoughtful 
wonder. But the center of the picture is not a 
boy to whom life contains no mystery, who has 
answered all questions and solved all problems. 
It is a boy, wondering, thinking, solving, see- 
ing clearly, but not as yet all things. It is a 
1 Luke 2 : 52. 2 Luke 2 : 46. 


64 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


boy who is advancing in wisdom, a boy who is 
using his opportunity of contact with wise men, 
and is “both hearing them, and asking them 
questions.” 1 

Jesus also acquired the literature of his 
people. For education consisted in the knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures. This literature poured 
its flood into the river of his life, a flood which 
resounded with the thunder of the law, and the 
calmer cadences of the deep currents of phi- 
losophy, the rhythm of poetry, the sheen and 
sparkle of prophetic hope. Hints were there 
of the meaning of the kingdom which was to 
be, and descriptions of the Messiah who was 
to come. With these the memory of the boy 
Jesus became richly stored. 

Such were some of the methods by which 
Jesus grew through acquisition, by which he 
came into possession of his world. The power 
of acquisition is little, however, without the 
power of interpretation. The problem of the 
early life of Jesus, as all these contributions 
came in to enrich his life, was the question, 
What do all these things mean? The love, 
the sacrifice, the obedience which he learned 


1 Luke 2 : 46. 


DEVELOPMENT BY ACQUISITION 65 

through the home; the inspiration and knowl- 
edge of God which the mountains and the 
flowers gave him; the majesty of the great his- 
toric forms of the national and religious life; 
the poetry and prophecy of Scripture, what did 
all these things mean to him? Was it possible 
that they had a special bearing upon his life? 
As he “advanced in wisdom /’ 1 this question 
took on mightier proportions, for it led him up 
to the momentous problem of his own mission 
in the world. 

1 Luke 2 : 52. 




THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
DECISION 






V 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
DECISION 

“The all of things is an infinite conjugation 
of the verb To do.” 1 Childhood is the period 
of acquisition. Life pours itself with rich con- 
tributions into personality. Then conies the 
question: How are the results of this enrich- 
ment to show themselves? In what form of 
activity will the personality display itself? 
Has the young person learned to conjugate the 
verb To do? The prophet casting his eyes 
over human life, sees “multitudes in the valley 
of decision.” * Those multitudes are made up 
mostly of those who are passing from the 
mountains of childhood’s innocence over to 
the mountains of manhood’s achievements. 
Between the two lies this deep valley. There 
are several stages in the passage thereof. 
There are the first steps downward, when the 
back is turned upon the old familiar outlines; 
when one is still alone upon the heights of 
‘Carlyle, “French Revolution.” * Joel 3: 14. 

69 


70 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


one’s own consciousness. By these first steps 
decision is made. But as the person plunges 
on, he finds that his little path soon joins the 
common highroad which leads through the 
valley. His passing comes to the notice of 
others who are on the same journey. This 
is the stage of the proclamation of decision. 
Down in the deepest places of the valley he 
must pass the river which flows through, where 
he is baptized into a stronger courage and a 
new life. This is the confirmation of decision 
to oneself and to others. The first climb to- 
ward the mount of achievement is rugged. 
This is the stage when decision is mightily 
tested. After that the way is clearer and the 
ascent more steady. The mountaineer comes 
out into sunshine and well-marked pathways. 
This is the period when decision is being acted 
upon, and all the strength of former expert 
ences contributes to make the way light and 
easy. The development of Jesus is clearly 
visible through all these stages of decision. 

The first step is the making of decision. It 
is a silent though tremendous process. Up- 
heaval follows upheaval in the nature, even 
though nothing is visible to those without. 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


7i 


During years of acquisition, Jesus had been 
thinking greatly ; had been loving greatly. 
Toward what was all this enlargement of 
thought and love leading him? Men must 
be delivered from the bondage of sin. By 
whom? The majestic hope of the prophets, 
still cherished by those about him, must be 
fulfilled. By whom? The nation was look- 
ing for some great leader. Who was it to 
be ? Religion had fallen into the ruts of ritual. 
Who could put his shoulder to the wheel and 
lift it to the road again ? Inexpressible was the 
need of Israel. Splendid was the unconquer- 
able hope of Israel. But there was no sun to 
give light. No streak of dawn was upon the 
eastern clouds. No star was shining through. 
As he looked out these stupendous facts met his 
sight. 

From the facts without, he began to turn his 
thoughts in upon himself. Already had he 
found the difference between himself and 
others. Already had he wondered at the 
strange unlikeness. The uniqueness of his per- 
sonality was upon him. In many ways he saw 
it. His love for men was passing the love of 
others. His sympathy for men in sin and sor- 


72 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


row was greater than the measure of it in the 
lives of others. His interpretation of nature 
was profounder than that taught by the rabbis. 
In one respect especially the vast difference was 
most apparent. It was so great as to make an 
abyss. It was in his thought and his love of 
God. Long ago he had ventured to call God 
his Father, and the satisfaction of that great 
thought had possessed him. What did all this 
mean to him? That was the mighty question 
of the years. Without, the need and hope of 
men ; within, satisfaction and the fulfilment of 
hope. What could those two facts mean when 
put side by side? He hardly dared to think. 
Yet he must think. The two must somehow be 
put together. But what if they were? As the 
thought came stealing in upon him, with in- 
creasing force, he received it with reverent fear 
and awe, with trembling, with hesitation. If I 
must interpret my life in terms of men’s needs, 
it means that I am to be the Messiah, that I am 
to be the Christ. That was a day of majestic 
importance to the life of the world, when, out 
on the hillside, Jesus sat, overlooking the vil- 
lages of his native land, as they were filled with 
the burden of many hearts, and the cares and 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


73 


hopes and fears of many lives, sat there under 
God’s sun, and felt the warmth of it, sat there 
amid the flowers and gazed at their beauty, sat 
there on that hill slope which was both man’s 
and God’s, sat there and let the wondrous 
thought pour itself into his being, that marvel- 
ous, fearful thought that toward him the ages 
had been looking, that from him the new ages 
were to catch their life, that he was to fulfil the 
expectation of the nation, that he was the 
Christ. Day, happy but awful to him; day, 
memorable thenceforth for all men! 

Once the vision had been seen, once the 
thought had entered, it possessed him. It grew 
in clearness, in beauty, in wonder. If this were 
for him to do. it must be done; it should be 
done. “O Father, hast thou chosen me to be 
thy Son from the foundation of the world? 
Hast thou placed on me this mighty, this awful, 
this joyous task? O Father, thou hast spoken; 
I have heard thy voice ; I go forth therefore to 
obey.” 

About such a decision life becomes polarized 
anew. All facts, all thoughts, all capacities are 
seen in a new light. There are moments of 
critical importance in the history of science. 


74 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


The effort of years has brought together a 
great mass of facts. But those facts are all in 
chaos. They seem to have no relation to one 
another. Then the light of a true theory is 
thrown upon them, and they are seen mar- 
shaled into perfect order. Through years 
Jesus had been acquiring his universe. The 
facts of life had been pouring in upon him. 
His capacities had been growing. Hopes, 
loves, sympathies, the power to do, longings 
of body, mind and soul had been gathering 
force within him. His relation to men, to 
nature, to God had been established. Yet he 
had not perceived the meaning of it all. Now 
it was clear. The gathering force of many 
waters now had its channel opened, its direc- 
tion determined. There had arisen among the 
powers of his life the colossal figure of a leader. 
It was the figure of his great decision. The 
allegiance of all his nature was sworn to it. 
Under this commander the crowd of thoughts, 
emotions, abilities became an ordered army. 
The organization of his life was complete. 

After decision is made, it must be made 
known. This is the second step in develop- 
ment by decision. So calm an exterior had 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


75 


Jesus kept while the mighty process had been 
going on within, that his own relatives (ot 7rap' 
avrov) 1 had not guessed the meaning of it. 
Even if he had confided to them the stupendous 
secret which lay in his breast, they were not 
convinced that he was right, and later tried to 
dissuade him from his purpose . 2 The oppor- 
tunity at last came when he could make known 
his purpose. During the years of his life's 
springtime, he had determined what he should 
be. The seed had been planted and watered. 
It had taken root. It was bursting with life. 
The coming of John the Baptist,* with his mes- 
sage and his call, was as the shining of the 
warm sun of the early summer. The ground 
was broken through. The life beneath re- 
vealed itself. The world then saw for the first 
time the great purpose of this life. At the 
opportunity which John the Baptist offered, 
the consciousness of Jesus broke through the 
surface. What he himself had been aware of 
in the secret places of his most high nature, 
could no longer be hid. It had come to the 
point of asserting itself. Devoted to his people 
and to the work of leading them to God, he 
1 Mark 3: 21. ’Mark 3:21,31. 3 Mark 1:4,5. 


76 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


honored that rite by which the best spirits 
among his people were expressing their long- 
ing after God. Recognizing the greatness of 
John the Baptist, he allowed him to open the 
door by which he was to enter into the supreme 
service. Without involving himself in the 
least sensation of remorse, or the slightest up- 
heaval of repentance, he accepted baptism as an 
act of full, unreserved consecration of his life 
to God. To him it was a deeper and more 
exalted experience than to others of his people 
in proportion as the service to which he conse- 
crated himself was higher and nobler. In the 
calm conviction of a supreme and majestic 
purpose, Jesus went forth to tell the world 
what was in his own heart. Our approach to 
the personality of Jesus by the way of his 
development, leads us to the conclusion that 
the baptism was not the occasion on which 
Jesus first became aware that he was the 
Christ, but was the occasion on which he 
proclaimed that of which he was already 
aware. So we read: “Then cometh Jesus 
from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be 
baptized of him.” 1 

1 Matthew 3: 13. 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


77 


The decision has been made ; it. is being pro- 
claimed; it is about to be confirmed. The in- 
fluence of John the Baptist at this important 
point in the life of Jesus was very great. For 
through him the decision got that confirmation 
which every great decision needs. How im- 
measurable were the emotions of Jesus, when 
he came to John to be baptized of him in Jor- 
dan, to find that John’s conception of his 
mission was like a strange, exact echo of his 
own! The voice which had been speaking 
within was answered by the audible voice 
of one without. Through years of careful 
thought and anxious questioning, Jesus had 
wrought out in his own secret nature that 
decision which now he came to proclaim, and 
in the very moment of proclaiming it he found 
one who recognized and confirmed the right of 
it. These were the wondrous words which 
came to the ears of Jesus as he approached the 
place where the prophet was: “There cometh 
after me he that is mightier than I, the latchet 
of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down 
and unloose. I baptized you with water; but 
he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 1 

1 Mark i : 7, 8, margin. 


78 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Such confirmation to his own soul from 
without could not fail to produce a deepening 
of confidence within. As deep answereth to 
deep, so the consciousness of Jesus that he was 
the Christ, already profound, and now so won- 
derfully endorsed, was evidenced to him in its 
final form. Conviction became settled. Deci- 
sion had its highest approval. The final tri- 
bunal in human nature now spoke, the voice 
which man recognizes as the voice of God: 
“Coming up out of the water, he saw the 
heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove 
descending upon him : and a voice came out of 
the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee 
I am well pleased .” 1 

The time has come for decision to be tested. 
The test assumes two forms, appearing upon 
two levels. The first, upon the lower level, 
comes in the form of desire immediately to do 
something which shall prove to the senses the 
correctness of the decision. Decision made, 
impatience follows. Immediate, tangible re- 
sults are looked for. The final confirmation of 
decision being reached, “Then was Jesus led up 
of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted 
1 Mark i: io, n. 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


79 


of the .devil .” 1 Canst thou prove that thou art 
the Son of God ? That was the question with 
which he wrestled. That was the demon with 
which he fought. “If thou art the Son of God, 
command that these stones become bread .” 8 
“If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself 
down.” * The only answer to such questioning 
was satisfaction with the inner conviction. The 
proofs from within must be deemed deeper 
and surer than the proofs from without. To 
require the proof of the senses is to question 
the accuracy of the spiritual processes. This 
test upon the lower level Jesus met by falling 
back upon his confidence in the inner confirma- 
tion of his decision, “Man shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of God .” 4 “Thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God .” 8 

The second test is on the higher level. Ques- 
tions as to the fact are left behind. Questions 
as to the method come into view. Jesus’ deci- 
sion to do the work of the Messiah was un- 
shaken. He had founded it upon the deepest 
conviction, and established it upon the strong- 

1 Matthew 4:1. * Matthew 4:3. 1 Matthew 4: 6. 

4 Matthew 4:4. 6 Matthew 4: 7. 


8o 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


est evidence within the reach of man. How 
should he do his work? Political methods 
were possible. The use of physical force was 
possible. Many methods which implied a lack 
of confidence in the highest spiritual ideals 
were possible. They promised sure and imme- 
diate results. Ambition reenforced the strength 
of their appeal. Could these not be taken and 
used? Would they not be exalted by the 
splendor of the end to be achieved ? To spurn 
them, was it not to imperil the whole project? 
That is a temptation before which men and 
institutions have yielded. But Jesus had 
gained such strength through his decision, 
and its proclamation, and its confirmation, that 
he was able to see the subtle evil which lurked 
in this mighty test. Already had his ideal of 
his mission risen above that level upon which 
mere success and failure could measure it. 
Though great success should come to him by 
the use of the lower methods, to use them 
would be to fall down and worship a demon 
in the guise of an angel. The kingdoms of the 
earth and the glory of them were within his 
reach. But they were beneath him, and if to 
grasp them was to stoop, he would not. The 


DEVELOPMENT BY DECISION 


81 


highest earthly mission was his. It must be 
fulfilled in the noblest and the purest ways. 
“Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve.” 1 

One stage of growth through decision now 
remained. It was the conjugation of the per- 
fect tense of the verb, To do. Until a man can 
say “I have done,” he cannot feel that decision 
has been followed through to its end. M. 
Madeleine, pacing his floor through the agony 
of a night, is not M. Madeleine until he appear 
in the morning before the court to disclose his 
identity. The act of doing is the coronation of 
the king, decision. It is the consummation of 
the whole process. Therefore we read : “From 
that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, 
Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand .” 1 

Along the pathway which leads through the 
“valley of decision” are we thus able to follow 
Jesus in the development of his personality. 
Through this crucial, splendid, triumphant 
period we can go with him. From the hilltops 
of youth's freedom from responsibility we 
1 Matthew 4: 10. a Matthew 4: 17. 


82 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


trace his footsteps over to the higher summits 
of manhood’s noble work. There we see him 
now entering upon that career to which deci- 
sion has led him. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
EXPERIENCE 









































































































































































































































































































VI 


THE DEVELOPMENT OE JESUS BY 
EXPERIENCE 

“It is one thing to know by contemplation; 
it is quite another to know by experience. 
Fully equipped for his ministry of righteous- 
ness and love at the outset, Jesus yet learned 
himself while he taught others ; learned deci- 
sion by temptation, zeal by the contradiction 
of sinners, sympathy by contact with the mis- 
erable, obedience by suffering.” 1 No man ever 
begins his life career with the advantage of 
experience. That is unthinkable. The very 
statement reveals a contradiction in terms. 
The young man with all his courage, educa- 
tion, will, consecration, must meet the world 
face to face. He must allow it in some ways 
to modify, as it inevitably will, his methods of 
work. Not that he is to be “fashioned accord- 
ing to this world .” 8 Yet, while he is con- 
stantly being transformed by the renewing of 

1 Bruce, “ The Humiliation of Christ.” 

3 Romans 12 : 2. 

85 


86 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


his mind 1 he will not come out from the 
school of experience just as he went into it. 
That Jesus' life was a human life is sufficient 
proof that it was no exception to this universal 
law. 

From beginning to end life puts itself under 
this great teacher, experience. Yet there are 
periods in which its discipline is most severe, 
its lessons most difficult, and its results most 
apparent. Such a period begins at the moment 
when a young man enters upon the actual work 
of life. Little does it matter how profound 
and how broad has been his education, life still 
has something to teach him. Such a period 
we discover in the life of Jesus from the time 
when he “came into Galilee, preaching the 
gospel of God, and saying, The time is ful- 
filled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,” * 
and the time when “Jesus taketh with him 
Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them 
up into a high mountain apart by themselves : 
and he was transfigured before them.” * Dur- 
ing that period Jesus learned the tragic lesson 
of what the world had in store for one who 
had decided that “no man can serve two mas- 
1 Romans 12:2. • Mark 1 : 14, 15. ' Mark 9: 2. 


DEVELOPMENT BY EXPERIENCE 87 


ters ” ; 1 that “he that findeth his life shall lose 
it ” ; 3 one who was so related to God's will that 
he could say : “Whosoever shall do the will of 
God, the same is my brother, and sister, and 
mother.’' * For after the transfiguration, a 
new note appears in the chord which made up 
that harmonious life, or, if not absolutely new, 
yet it is heard from that time with distinctness, 
and takes its place, as it had not before, in the 
total personality of Jesus. It was “as they 
were coming down from the mountain” 4 that 
Jesus said to his disciples: “How is it written 
of the Son of man, that he should suffer many 
things and be set at nought ? ” * 

How does a young man begin his work? 
What method does he employ as he makes the 
first great plunge into the world’s actual con- 
dition, to carry out his own purposes? He 
uses the methods of his own highest human 
ideal. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, 
John the Baptist was the most conspicuous 
figure in the life of Israel. The work he was 
doing was of the sort which Jesus was about 
to engage in. Jesus considered him the great- 

1 Matthew 6: 24. * Matthew 10: 39. * Mark 3: 35. 

‘Mark 9:9. ‘Mark 9: 12. 


88 


WHO THEN IS THIS . 


est of all the prophets. Indeed, a little later he 
said of him: “Among them that are born of 
women there hath not arisen a greater than 
John the Baptist.” 1 His own ideal out of all 
the ages was the one which Jesus adopted. 
The method of the greatest man of all time up 
to his own was the method by which Jesus at 
the outset undertook to fulfil his own mighty 
conceptions of his work. The first public mes- 
sage of Jesus seems as if caught from the very 
lips of John. For John, preaching in the wil- 
derness of Judea, had said: “Repent ye; for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 And we 
go on to read: “From that time began Jesus 
to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand.” * 

Experience, however, always opens the door 
into one’s own best method. Jesus did not 
long follow even the highest of all his own 
human ideals. After the briefest possible 
period, Jesus entered by the new door which 
experience opened. He found his own best 
method. It was a development in personality 
through experience. The baptism with which 
he was to baptize was not to be of water, but 

1 Matthew n: n. ’Matthew 3:2. * Matthew 4: 17. 


DEVELOPMENT BY EXPERIENCE 89 

of the Holy Spirit , 1 * and of self-sacrifice.* It 
was not for him to be a voice crying in the 
wilderness, but to go to the haunts of men* 
and attach them to himself through the deepest 
personal friendships. It was not for him to 
make men come down from all the “country 
of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem,” 4 but to 
go into the house where “Simon’s wife’s 
mother lay sick of a fever.” 8 To touch life at 
its very heart, where the springs of its disease 
and sin could be purified, that was the method 
which was best for him. 

The development of the personality of Jesus 
by experience reveals itself, as always, by the 
appearance of qualities in strongly contrasted 
and seemingly contradictory pairs. 

Experience develops self-confidence at the 
same time that it develops humility. To gain 
the first without the second is to grow into a 
man of mere self-conceit. To gain the second 
without the first is to have that nature which 
shrinks back when the real contests of life are 
on. Jesus had his successes and his failures, 
as the world counts these. Experience with 

1 Mark 1:8. * Mark 10: 38. ' Mark 1: 16. 

4 Mark 1:5. ‘ Mark 1 : 29, 30. 


90 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


one made him strong and self-confident. Ex- 
perience with the other made him humble. He 
who began by submitting himself to be bap- 
tized of John , 1 soon found that when he went 
into a house in Capernaum, “all the city was 
gathered together at the door.” * When he 
went forth again by the seaside, “all the multi- 
tude resorted unto him.” * Such successes 
called out that self-confidence in which “he 
appointed twelve, that they might be with him, 
and that he might send them forth to preach, 
and to have authority to cast out demons.” 4 
Meanwhile he was having his failures and dis- 
couragements. He yielded to the wish of the 
Gerasenes that he should depart from their 
country/ The people of Nazareth caused him 
to marvel at their unbelief, so that “he could 
there do no mighty work .” 9 His disciples 
were not able to remain long on those high 
levels of thought where he habitually dwelt. 
Sometimes when they quite misinterpreted his 
words, he had to say, “Do ye not yet perceive, 
neither understand ?” T In the midst of such 
experiences his humility came out clearly. For 

1 Mark 1:9. ’Mark 1:33. * Mark 2:13. 

4 Mark 3 - M, 15. * Luke 8 : 37. 4 Mark 6: 5, 

T Mark 8: 17. 


DEVELOPMENT BY EXPERIENCE 


9i 


while he was doing his work with utmost self- 
confidence, he was also saying, “Learn of me, 
for I am meek and lowly in heart.” 1 

Experience develops the sense of power at 
the same time that it reveals limitations. The 
passing years bring to every man the joy of 
undertaking with calm courage those tasks 
which once he approached with much fear 
and trembling. That is the consciousness of 
power. He who caught his first message from 
John the Baptist can be seen, after some 
months of contact with the world, walking 
upon the sea of Galilee , 2 commanding the storm 
to become calm/ and with serenity taking the 
hand of the daughter of Jairus and command- 
ing that she arise . 4 Meanwhile the limitations 
under which he worked were becoming more 
clearly defined. Wide as were his sympathies 
and his hopes, he saw that not yet was his king- 
dom to be a universal kingdom. He must 
concentrate his efforts upon the few. For the 
sake of ultimate success, he must himself pos- 
sess his soul in the patience of small things. 
So he gathered his little circle about him/ and 

Matthew 11:29. ’Matthew 14:25. 

* Mark 4: 39. 4 Mark 5: 41. * Mark 3: 13. 


9 2 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


even when he sent them out, he told them, 
“Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and 
enter not into any city of the Samar itans.” 1 
Experience develops a knowledge of the sin- 
fulness of men at the same time that it deepens 
hope for the savableness of men. These two 
must grow together. The first alone leads to 
despair ; the second alone, to shallow optimism. 
As Jesus probed to the heart of man, the 
terrible, stern reality appeared, that sin was 
strongly intrenched. Yet there appeared also 
the omnipotence of the forces of righteousness. 
He saw the final overthrow of sin’s strongest 
citadel. When a man sick of the palsy was 
brought to him, he saw the secrets of the 
man’s heart, reminding him that the antece- 
dent of the sickness was sin/ Yet he confi- 
dently said to the man, “Arise, take up thy 
bed, and go unto thy house.” * When he spoke 
of his Church, he recognized the tremendous 
seriousness of its task in the world, for the 
very gates of Hades were against it. Yet he 
calmly predicted that the gates of Hades should 
not prevail/ His experience with human na- 

1 Matthew io: 5. * Mark 2: 5. 

' Mark 2: 11. * Matthew 16: 18. 


DEVELOPMENT BY EXPERIENCE 


93 


ture, while it admitted him into the deep dark- 
ness of human sin, yet taught him hope for 
man. “I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from 
heaven.” 1 

The personality of Jesus, as it developed by 
experience, kept its perfect balance. When 
self-confidence was cast into one side, humil- 
ity in equal measure was cast into the other. 
When the sense of power grew upon him, the 
knowledge of the limitations within which that 
power must reveal itself became apparent. 
When the fearful gravity of sin depressed him, 
hope was found sufficient to outweigh it. 

Any discussion of the development of Jesus 
by experience must touch also upon his expe- 
rience as a teacher. The truth always masters 
a man while he is in the process of imparting 
it to others. The intensity of conviction is 
strengthened by stating it. The majestic, mys- 
terious fact that he was the Christ, the fact 
which had been made clear to him during the 
years of silence, became still more majestic and 
mysterious, as he found himself teaching those 
truths which the Christ must needs bring to 
men. With more and more confidence he put 
1 Luke io : 18. 


94 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


himself forward as the center of religion and 
of life. As the currents of the Gospels flow 
deeper, we hear him say, “No one knoweth the 
Son, save the Father; neither doth any know 
the Father, save the Son, and he to whomso- 
ever the Son willeth to reveal him. Come unto 
me.” 1 The great truth of his relation to God 
and to men was strengthened as he taught it. 
Side by side with this grew also his humility, 
out of the deepening experience of which he 
was saying, “Whosoever shall not receive the 
kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no 
wise enter therein,” 2 and again, “If any man 
would be first, he shall be last of all, and min- 
ister of all.” 8 In all such teaching Jesus was 
giving himself. He was speaking out of that 
personality which was already so rich, and 
which was ever becoming richer as he gave it 
to others. In fullest measure Jesus through his 
experience was proving that truth which is 
sacred to every teacher and parent, that to be 
prodigal of truth is to be rich in truth, and to 
be prodigal in the giving of one’s own experi- 
ence and self is to be rich in experience and in 
personality. 

Matthew 11:27, 28. s Mark 10: 15. ‘Mark 9: 35. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS BY 
SACRIFICIAL LOVE 






























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VII 


THE DEVELOPMENT OE JESUS BY 
SACRIFICIAL LOVE 

The development of personality is by epochs. 
There are great events back to which all sub- 
sequent experiences are dated. Evolutionists 
recognize “ ‘critical points” in the onward 
march of progress. Scientists recognize sim- 
ilar “critical points,” as when, by the differ- 
ence of only a single degree of temperature, 
water becomes steam. The development of a 
life is like the march of an army through a 
hostile region. There are long, level stretches 
of country, where little resistance is offered. 
The chief business of the army then is its own 
maintenance. At the end of such a march a 
fortified city is reached. A battle must be 
fought. Only after that struggle has been 
won, can the onward march be resumed. Such 
a battle is a turning-point in the whole cam- 
paign, for after the victory the army goes on 
with new courage and greater strength. So 
grows the personality of a man. 

97 


98 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


The transfiguration of Jesus was such an 
event. It was a turning-point. New meanings 
of life came into view from that summit. New 
truths came into prominence. After that 
event, the march of Jesus’ life took its way 
toward the cross. Closely connected with the 
transfiguration was the new emphasis which 
Jesus placed upon the necessity of sacrifice. 
The end of his career was now clearly seen. 
That end was suffering and a tragic death. 
The life of Jesus after the transfiguration was 
spent under the shadow of the cross. There 
was a deeper note, not of somberness, but of 
seriousness. The event which was now so 
close upon him necessarily pervaded his think- 
ing and his activity. Sometimes across the 
face of mountains which have been aglow 
under the noon sun, there come, as the after- 
noon advances, deep shadows of clouds. The 
whole range assumes a different aspect. Its 
face becomes more serious; its ravines look 
deeper and darker; its summits rise through 
the shadows in greater majesty. This, how- 
ever, is only the prophecy of that superb sunset 
which is on earth and sky only when the sun 
has passed beneath the cloud fields. The clear 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE 99 

radiance of noon, and the deep shadows which 
succeeded, have both been pointing toward the 
perfect beauty of the departing day. Jesus’ 
noonday was the transfiguration. During the 
months which followed, his career was shad- 
owed by a great doom. Both were, however, 
the necessary preparations for that great event 
in which he was lifted up, when he became 
more radiant than in the transfiguration, and 
more imposing than in the shadow. 

In close relation to the transfiguration, both 
immediately before and immediately after, 
came Jesus’ clear announcement of his con- 
viction that he must suffer. Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke alike realize this relation . 1 Just be- 
fore the transfiguration, Mark tells us that 
“he called unto him the multitude with his dis- 
ciples, and said unto them, If any man would 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross, and follow me.” 2 Just after the 
same event Mark goes on to say that “as they 
were coming down from the mountain, he 
charged them that they should tell no man 
what things they had seen, save when the Son 

1 Matthew 16:21; 17:9; Mark 8: 31; 9:9; Luke 
9: 22, 44. 2 Mark 8: 34. 


L.ofC. 


100 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


of man should have risen again from the 
dead .” 1 

No man can see the end of life from the 
beginning. To have eyes blind, or at best very 
dim, toward the future, is a part of the blessed 
fate of our humanity. But the past becomes 
our prophet. He who looks into the dark 
future through the eyes of this seer may often 
discern the forms of outcomes. 

“ Often do the spirits 

Of great events stride on before the events, 

And in to-day already walks to-morrow.” 8 

After the transfiguration, in whatever direction 
Jesus looked, the cross loomed up on his hori- 
zon. It became his settled conviction, — in- 
cluded long ago among the possibilities, but 
now settled, — that his mission must be ful- 
filled by suffering and death. 

This conviction gave to his words to his 
disciple-friends a new note of pathos, tender- 
ness, yearning, urgency, mystery. “For he 
taught his disciples, and said unto them, The 
Son of man is delivered up into the hands of 
men, and they shall kill him; and when he is 
killed, after three days he shall rise again. 

1 Mark 9: 9. 

2 Coleridge, “ The Death of Wallenstein.” 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE ioi 


But they understood not the saying, and were 
afraid to ask him .” 1 Very touching, very 
pathetic, very full of regret that his followers 
must be involved in his sacrifices, yet full of 
joy in the hope of the final outcome, is the 
answer of Jesus when “Peter began to say 
unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have fol- 
lowed thee.” 2 The thought of the necessity of 
sacrifice had grown to* such proportions that 
it touched all his teaching and gave an un- 
earthly splendor and dignity to every invitation 
to come and follow him . 3 “Then said Jesus 
unto his disciples, If any man would come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
his cross, and follow me. For whosoever 
would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever 
shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” 4 

The conviction that he must suffer pervaded 
the thought of Jesus. It was much in his 
mind. He was constantly making reference 
to it, as one always does to the thought which 
is supreme. He was interpreting the fact into 
his own life and the life of the world. Not 
that he was struggling with it as if to forget 

1 Mark 9:31,32. 2 Mark 10:28-31. 

* Luke 14: 26, 27. 4 Matthew 16: 24, 25. 


102 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


it. On the other hand, he opened his mind 
to it; he let it come in freely; he let it domi- 
nate and possess him. His teaching was the 
same, but it was irradiated by that indescrib- 
able light of beauty and tenderness which glo- 
rifies a human heart when it gives itself up to a 
great sacrificial purpose. He read the pro- 
found, universal meaning of sacrifice. “Every 
one,” he said, “shall be salted with fire.” 1 He 
told the story of his own pathetic life in the 
form of a parable, the climax of which led 
him up to say, “But those husbandmen said 
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let 
us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 
And they took him, and killed him, and cast 
him forth out of the vineyard .” 2 When, as 
he was in the house of Simon the leper in 
Bethany, there came “a woman having an ala- 
baster cruse of ointment” 3 very costly, which 
she poured over his head, he revealed very 
clearly what he had been thinking about, what 
had been uppermost in his mind, when he 
said: “She hath anointed my body aforehand 
for the burying.” * 

One flash from the light of history gives us 
*Mark 9:49. 1 Mark 12:7,8. 8 Mark 14:3,8. 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE 103 


a very clear view of the personality of Jesus 
at this period, and how the thought of sacri- 
fice had grown with him till it occupied his 
mind and transformed his life. What a picture 
the simple words of the history present : “And 
they were in the way, going up to Jerusalem; 
and Jesus was going before them: and they 
were amazed; and they that followed were 
afraid ” ! 1 What was there in the personality 
of Jesus on that occasion to produce such re- 
sults? Why should that figure, as it went on 
before them across the paths of the hills, affect 
them so strangely? His thought was on his 
approaching sacrifice, its necessity, its mean- 
ing, its outcome. That thought possessed him ; 
it transported him; it changed him; it made 
him awesome, mysterious, wonderful. All this 
is contained in the next words: “And he 
took again the twelve, and began to tell them 
the things that were to happen unto him, say- 
ing, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the 
Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief 
priests and the scribes ; and they shall condemn 
him to death, and shall deliver him unto the 
Gentiles: and they shall mock him, and shall 


1 Mark 10: 32. 


104 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


spit upon him, and shall scourge him, and shall 
kill him; and after three days he shall rise 
again.” 1 

At no other period in the life of Jesus do 
we see the sturdy grandeur of his character 
as we see it at the time when all the motives 
of his life were touched by the dominant 
thought of the necessity of sacrifice. The 
decisions of his early manhood, the purpose 
which had been strengthened by temptation, 
the enthusiasms of service, the methods made 
richer by experience — all these become more 
splendid when we realize that Jesus accepted 
all the results to which they led without flinch- 
ing. There is a majesty of tenderness, and a 
grandeur of yearning love, in the outcome of 
those events, the result of which was that “he 
stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” 2 

While it is true that “the heart becomes 
heroic by the might of passion” such as his, we 
must also notice the deep pathos of yearning 
love which was upon Jesus during this later 
period. At such a time there is something in 
the close contact of childhood which brings 
profound joy. So Jesus could not be satisfied 
1 Mark 10 : 32-34. 2 Luke 9:51. 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE 105 

simply to take a little child “and set him in 
the midst of them ”; 1 he must take him “in 
his arms” 2 when he said to them, “Whosoever 
shall receive one of such little children in my 
name, receiveth me.” * 

By the evidence of a chastened joy does this 
yearning love become apparent. This was the 
joy which he saw set before him after he had 
endured the cross . 4 The prediction of his suf- 
fering was sweetened and sanctified by the 
thought that “when he is killed, after three 
days he shall rise again,” 8 and that in him was 
to be fulfilled the ancient prophecy that “the 
stone which the builders rejected, the same was 
made the head of the corner .” 8 

By the evidence of a deepening inward peace 
does this yearning love become apparent. This 
peaceful confidence he tried to transfer to the 
disciples. “When ye shall hear of wars and 
rumours of wars,” he said, “be not troubled ” ; 7 
“Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's 
sake : but he that endureth to the end, the same 
shall be saved.” 8 What profound tranquillity 
must have reigned in the deep places of that 

1 Mark 9: 36. 2 Mark 9: 36; 10: 16. * Mark 9: 37. 

4 Hebrews 12: 2.® Mark 9:31. * Mark 12: 10. 

7 Mark 13:7. 8 Mark 13:13. 


10 6 WHO THEN IS THIS 

nature upon the surface of which was just then 
beating the fiercest of all storms, that he could 
say, “Verily, I say unto you, I will no more 
drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day 
when I drink it new in the kingdom of God ” ! 1 

By his deep desire to let his life and 
approaching death “lie lovingly over all the 
faults and rough places of the human heart, 
as the snow from heaven does over the hard, 
and black, and broken mountain rocks,” 2 does 
this yearning love become apparent, inspiring 
him to state his mission thus: “The Son of 
man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many.” 3 

This growing certainty that the end was 
sacrifice, and that the end was near ; this deep- 
ening of all motives through sacrificial love, 
made necessary a new emphasis upon himself 
in the teaching of the later period. The time 
was at hand; the work must be done; the 
mission of the Christ must be fulfilled before 
the tragic end should close down upon him. 
“How am I straitened till it be accomplished !” 4 


1 Mark 14:25. * Ruskin, “Modern Painters.’ 

'Mark 10:45. 4 Luke 12:50. 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE 107 

No reserve on his part was now possible. He 
must face all issues immediately. With all 
tranquillity and assurance therefore he came 
forward. To receive a child in his name was 
to receive him, and to receive him was not to 
receive him, but the one who sent him . 1 He 
identified himself with the one, the beloved son, 
who at last was sent with the hope, “They will 
reverence my son .” 2 He promised that he 
would be in the midst, where two or three were 
gathered in his name . 8 He had no caution now 
for blind men who cried out, “Lord, have 
mercy on us, thou son of David.” 4 He ac- 
cepted the title of Messiah also when he rode 
into Jerusalem . 5 He thrust himself forward as 
the one to whom the Messiah's mission had 
been given, when he drove the traders from the 
temple . 9 He fearlessly denounced scribes and 
Pharisees . 7 Toward the last he said to his 
disciples, “This is my body. . . . This is my 
blood of the covenant, which is shed for 
many .” 8 The urgency of a great love was 
upon him. The end was approaching speedily. 

This period of sacrificial love brought with 

‘Mark 9:37. 2 Mark 12:6. ‘Matthew 18:20. 

4 Matthew 20: 31. 6 Matthew 21 : 9. 8 Mark 11: 15-17. 

T Matthew 23: 13 ff. 8 Mark 14: 22, 24. 


io8 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


it a new problem, with its own special tempta- 
tion. If he was so soon to suffer; if his hopes 
were to end in apparent defeat; if his work 
was to be so incomplete; could it be true that 
he was the Christ? Had he not been mistaken 
in his early conviction? This temptation pre- 
sented itself in close relation to his first clear 
announcement of his suffering. It came in the 
form of Peter's suggestion, when “Peter took 
him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it 
far from thee, Cord: this shall never be unto 
thee ." 1 If he were in fact the Christ, how 
could these things be true ? But he found that 
the two were reconcilable. In fact, in spite of 
all the misconceptions of the Messiah which 
were about him, he could see that the deeper 
meaning of prophecy pointed to the very thing 
which was now imposed upon him. The Christ 
must suffer. He saw that it was “written of 
the Son of man, that he should suffer many 
things and be set at nought." 2 That interpre- 
tation of history and of prophecy became to 
him the only possible interpretation. It led 
him to such a statement as that which he made 
at the last supper: “The Son of man goeth, 
1 Matthew 16: 22. 2 Mark 9: 12. 


DEVELOPMENT BY SACRIFICIAL LOVE 109 

even as it is written of him.” 1 Like the earlier 
temptations, this later temptation, insidious, 
subtle, urgent, was met and overcome by his 
profound consecration to the will of his Fa- 
ther. Love was the great interpreter, explain- 
ing the need of sacrifice. 

This period of the development of Jesus* 
personality by sacrificial love is the final pe- 
riod ; for when we follow it to the end, we are 
brought to the supreme act of loving sacrifice 
which closed his life. 


1 Mark 14: 21. 





















THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS 
THE GOAL 



VIII 


THE DEVELOPMENT OE JESUS 
THE GOAL 

We pass now to consider the goal of Jesus* 
development; the ideal toward which he strove 
and which at last he reached. This was the 
resurrection life. We shall look at it from 
only one point of view, and that the point of 
view which the Gospels assume. From that 
point of view it appeared the necessary and 
only possible outcome of Jesus’ life. It was 
the thing to which he looked forward. It was 
the object which he was reaching out for. It 
was something which he believed that he could 
win. His thought had been reflected in the 
lines : 

“ Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 

And the grave is not its goal.” 1 

If the physical life could absolutely be mas- 
tered ; if all its temptations could be overcome, 
and its ambitions subordinated by obedience 
to the will of God, the life of the spirit would 

1 Longfellow, “ A Psalm of Life.” 

113 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


114 

assert itself, becoming grandly victorious over 
all limitations. This thought was behind his 
teaching when he said, “He that findeth his 
life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for 
my sake shall find it.” 1 This thought helped 
to form and confirm in him that hope which he 
so many times expressed in connection with 
the prediction of his suffering. If he was to 
suffer, he was also to rise again. 2 What was 
to be the logical outcome of his sinless life? 
What was to be the inevitable result of the 
growth of his personality? What is the con- 
dition to which developing personality attains ? 
If it is true that “Man partly is, and wholly 
hopes to be,” 8 upon what can that hope fix 
itself? When, at the end of his progress, man 
has come wholly to be, what has he achieved ? 
The Gospels answer that question by the sim- 
ple story of the resurrection life of Jesus. In 
other words, they answer it by saying that the 
goal of the development of human personality 
is the supremacy of the spiritual nature and 
its assertion over all physical conditions and 
limitations. 

1 Matthew 10: 39. 8 Mark 8: 31; 9: 9; 9: 31; 10: 34. 

8 Browning, “ A Death in the Desert.” 


DEVELOPMENT: THE GOAL 115 

We have traced the development of Jesus 
through the overlapping periods of acquisition, 
of decision, of experience, and of sacrificial 
love. The majesty of the spiritual element has 
been clear throughout. Yet, as we have seen it 
marching on to its ultimate, absolute triumph 
over all physical elements, its growing domi- 
nance has been apparent. At his baptism, “he 
saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit 
as a dove descending upon him.” 1 He became 
so different from other men through the lofti- 
ness of his thought, that not long after the 
beginning of his ministry “his friends [or rela- 
tives] . . . went out to lay hold on him: for 
they said* He is beside himself .” 2 On the 
mount, at his transfiguration, the life of the 
spirit so asserted itself that “his face did shine 
as the sun, and his garments became white as 
the light.” 3 Toward the end, as “they were 
in the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus 
was going before them,” * while he was con- 
templating the facts which lay before him, how 
he must suffer and be put to death, and rise 
again on the third day, those who looked at 


1 Mark 1 : 10. 

3 Matthew 1 7 - 2. 


2 Mark 3: 21. 

4 Mark 10: 32. 


u6 WHO THEN IS THIS 

him were amazed, “and they that followed 
were afraid.” 1 There followed the great expe- 
riences of Gethsemane and the cross, and 
then, at last, the goal of human development 
was reached. The life of the spirit became 
supreme. It asserted itself over all physical 
limitations. By that supremacy and that free- 
dom, it was proved, that “Hope could never 
hope too much.” 3 Personality, having come 
to its highest in Jesus, had demonstrated its 
majestic power. It was superior to space : “He 
is not here; for he is risen, even as he said.” * 
It was superior to time: “Lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world.” 4 

The Gospels represent the soul’s victory over 
death as the inevitable outcome of the life of 
Jesus. The development of his personality 
could have no other goal, nor could it fail to 
reach this. 

The Gospels do not disguise the fact that 
this assertion of the supremacy of life was an 
utter surprise to the followers of Jesus. But 
this was because they had not understood his 
teaching nor comprehended the significance of 

‘Mark 10:32. ‘Tennyson, “In Memoriam.” 

‘Matthew 28:6. 4 Matthew 28: 20. 


DEVELOPMENT: THE GOAL 117 

his personality. Without hope, except that of 
being able to perform a sad rite, ‘“when the 
sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary 
the mother of James, and Salome, bought 
spices, that they might come and anoint him. 
And very early on the first day of the week, 
they come to the tomb.” 1 So absolutely unpre- 
pared were they, that when the news first broke 
upon them, “they were amazed,” 2 and when 
the full meaning of it became clear, “they went 
out, and fled from the tomb ; for trembling and 
astonishment had come upon them: and they 
said nothing to any one; for they were 
afraid.” 3 So hopeless also were the disciples 
that when these frightened, trembling women 
came to them, and “told these things,” 4 “these 
words appeared in their sight as idle talk ; and 
they disbelieved them.” 4 

The Gospels themselves, however, assume a 
very different attitude toward this great event 
which they record. It was not fearsome. It 
was not amazing. It was not even surprising. 
It was inevitable. The life of Jesus was a 
cause which made such a result necessary. The 


1 Mark 16: 1, 2. 

* Mark 16: 8. 


* Mark 16: 5. 

4 Luke 24: 10, 11. 


n8 WHO THEN IS THIS 

personality of Jesus was a premise which made 
such a conclusion certain. It was the end 
of development; it was the attainment of the 
goal. The astonishment of the women re- 
ceived its kindly rebuke; for the first word 
which was spoken to them was, “Be not 
amazed.” 1 One Gospel puts that kindly re- 
buke into the form of a reminder that this was 
the very outcome which Jesus had taught them 
to expect: “He is not here; for he is risen, even 
as he said.” 2 Another Gospel puts it into the 
form of a more complete recollection of what 
Jesus had taught them to look forward to . 3 
When Jesus talked with the two men who were 
on their way to Emmaus, his words were all 
directed toward making them see that what 
had come to pass was a necessary outcome; 
for “he said unto them, O foolish men, and 
slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets 
have spoken! Behoved it not the Christ to 
suffer these things, and to enter into his glory ? 
And beginning from Moses and from all the 
prophets, he interpreted to them in all the 
scriptures the things concerning himself .” 4 

*Mark 1 6:6. % Matthew 28: 6. 

* Luke 24: 6, 7. 4 Luke 24: 25-27. 


DEVELOPMENT: THE GOAL 119 

On another occasion, when he met the disci- 
ples, the Gospels tell us, “he said unto them, 
These are my words which I spake unto you, 
while I was yet with you ,” 1 and again, “Thus 
it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and 
rise again from the dead the third day.”* 
The continuity of the life of Jesus through the 
great experiences of Gethsemane, of Calvary, 
and of the tomb, is the truth upon which the 
Gospels build. It is fundamental in their con- 
ception of him about whom they speak. The 
resurrection life of Jesus was the goal of his 
development. It was the logical result of his 
career. It was the final assertion of his person- 
ality over all physical conditions and limita- 
tions. The hope he had cherished from the 
first, he had realized. The goal for which he 
had striven, he had reached. 


1 Luke 24: 44. 


3 Luke 24:46. 

































































































































































































































































































\ 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 




IX 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 

Every strong personality makes its impres- 
sion upon the world. It creates a stir. It 
becomes the center of discussions. There are 
those who are repelled from it ; there are those 
who are drawn toward it. It is impossible for 
it to isolate itself. It is a part of its very 
essence to attract attention. It is by its nature 
related to society. When any great personal- 
ity appears in the community, its effect is so 
definite that differences of opinion about it 
part friendships, break up long existing rela- 
tionships, and even enter the home to divide 
it into factions. It never brings peace, but a 
sword. It sets a man at variance against his 
father, and the daughter against her mother, 
and a man’s foes become they of his own 
household . 1 It has a certain strange aggres- 
siveness. You cannot avoid the issues which 
its presence raises. Its influence insinuates it- 
self into thought and affection. Its presence 
1 Matthew io: 35, 36. 

123 


124 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


becomes the judge of all within that circle of 
which it is the center, through the fact that 
they draw nearer to it or are repelled from it. 

The personality of Jesus produced all these 
effects. As soon as he appeared among men it 
became impossible for him to remain unknown. 
He created a stir; he was talked about; his 
reputation began to spread. Men were not 
agreed in their conclusions about him, but 
wherever he went, he became the center of 
attention and interest. It was not from delib- 
erate choice on his part that he “came not to 
send peace, but a sword ” ; 1 it was a necessity 
which resided in his personality. It was by 
no artificial exaltation nor arbitrary decision 
that he became the judge of men ; 3 he could 
not be what he was, and be less. For wherever 
he appeared, the lines were quickly drawn 
among men, according to their opinions about 
him. People talked about him so much; they 
were so interested in him, for reasons of like 
or dislike, that the story of his ministry had 
hardly begun, when we are told that “the re- 
port of him went out straightway everywhere 
into all the region of Galilee round about.”* 

1 Matthew 10:34. 2 Matthew 25: 31-40. *Mark 1:28. 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 


125 


The friends of those whom he helped found 
him so engaging their thought and interest 
that they sent the fame of him into all 
that land . 1 The thoughts of those whom he 
helped were so filled and controlled by grati- 
tude that they could not refrain from spread- 
ing abroad his fame, even though commanded, 
“See that no man know it. ,, 8 Concealment was 
impossible. There are thoughts which are so 
commanding that they overrule all effort to 
restrain them. 

After Jesus had visited the village of Nain, 
and had given the people there a chance to 
measure the power of his personality, his repu- 
tation became so great that it crystallized about 
the saying, “A great prophet is arisen among 
us .” 8 In this form the “report went forth 
concerning him in the whole of Judaea, and 
all the region round about.” 8 He was talked 
about not only among the common people, but 
also in the homes and the palaces of the great. 
This went so far and so high that “Herod the 
tetrarch heard of all that was done,” 4 and was 
perplexed in his attempt to account for it. 

1 Matthew 9: 26. 2 Matthew 9: 30, 31. 

8 Luke 7: 16, 17. 4 Luke 9: 7. 


126 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


The reputation of Jesus extended not only to 
the great, but also to the distant. For when 
he secretly took his journey into “the borders 
of Tyre and Sidon,” 1 where he entered into 
a house, wishing no man to know it, he found 
that “he could not be hid.” 1 His reputation 
had gone on before him. For “straightway a 
woman, whose little daughter had an unclean 
spirit, having heard of him, came and fell 
down at his feet .” 1 His name was taken up 
by the exorcists of the day as the strongest 
power which they could use to cure the demon- 
ized . 3 About the time of the transfiguration, 
his fame had so formulated itself that Jesus 
wished to know what his disciples had heard 
people say about him, for he asked them, say- 
ing, “Who do men say that I am?”" 

Such a question could not be answered in a 
single word, for the judgments which men 
formed upon the reputation of Jesus depended 
upon the character and attitude of the men 
themselves. There were those who looked 
upon him from the point of view of the critic. 
That was their attitude because his teaching 
and his manner were in direct opposition to 
1 Mark 7: 24, 25. * Mark 9:38. ‘Mark 8:27. 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 


12 7 


their personal interests. It was their duty, as 
they viewed it, to preserve the existing order 
of things. The effect of Jesus’ presence was 
to give a shock to that existing order. Such 
men were repelled by this majestic personality. 
They were put at once on the defensive. When 
they heard him speak of the forgiveness of 
sins to a man sick of the palsy who had been 
brought to him, they began to say to one an- 
other, “Why doth this man thus speak? he 
blasphemeth : who can forgive sins but one, 
even God ? ” 1 Under similar circumstances at 
another time, the Pharisees reached the same 
conclusion.* Being slaves of the positions 
which they held, instead of masters of them, 
“they scoffed at him” 8 when he undertook to 
purify religion and make it disinterested. As 
Jesus went calmly on in his work, letting the 
power of his personality be felt, the opposition 
to him from such men became bitter. They 
found in him a master among men. They 
must either master him or be mastered by him. 
Therefore “they sought to lay hold on him.” 4 
For a time they were defeated in their pur- 

1 Mark 2: 6, 7. 2 Luke 7: 49. 

8 Luke 16: 14. 4 Mark 12: 12. 


128 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


pose by Jesus’ popularity; but at last they 
succeeded in ridding the world of such a man. 
When they tried to explain to themselves that 
power, the existence of which they could not 
deny, they said, “He hath Beelzebub.” 1 This 
was the impression which Jesus made upon 
some of those who passed by; some of those 
who saw him, heard him, recognized the power 
which he exercised and came under the influ- 
ence of his personality. 

Differences of opinion great personalities 
are certain to create. There were many who 
did not agree with these guardians of the 
established order. There were many of those 
who never came very near him, who saw him 
from the distance, who observed him casually, 
whose verdict was quite the opposite. For we 
are thinking now only of those who were on 
the farthest circumference of his influence. 
When Jesus inquired of the disciples what the 
opinions of men about him were, they brought 
together the verdicts which they had heard. 
Some supposed that John the Baptist, the great- 
est figure in the memory of the generation, 
had come back to them. 8 Some had decided 

1 Mark 3: 22. 2 Mark 8: 28. 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 


12 ) 


that Elijah, who was to return to usher in the 
perfect age, had appeared . 1 Those who did not 
rank him so high, believed at least that he 
was “one of the prophets.” 1 In one of the 
scribes the intellectual force and vigor and in- 
sight of Jesus had called forth respect, for we 
read that he “came, and heard them ques- 
tioning together, and knowing that he had 
answered them well, asked him, What com- 
mandment is the first of all ?” 2 That respect 
was justified, for after Jesus had answered “no 
man durst ask him any question.” 3 

That centurion whose fearful duty it was to 
be near during the crucifixion, could not with- 
hold his word of wonder and admiration . 4 
The impression which the reputation of Jesus 
had made upon the wife of Pilate was such that 
when her husband was about to assume the 
responsibility of a verdict upon Jesus, she sent 
him the message, “Have thou nothing to do 
with that righteous man.” 8 Herod, himself, 
in his palace, when he heard the reports of 
Jesus’ work, was forced to speak out that deci- 
sion which his conscience dictated: “John the 

1 Mark 8:28. 2 Mark 12:28. 8 Mark 12:34. 

4 Mark 15: 39. 6 Matthew 27: 19. 


130 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore 
do these powers work in him.” 1 Such con- 
clusions were more unprejudiced than those 
reached by scribes and Pharisees. 

The confidence which the sick and the 
friends of the sick had in the power of his 
presence, his touch, his will, is a strong and 
consistent witness to the sort of reputation 
which Jesus made. Through the Gospel of 
Mark there moves a living procession of those 
who came to him to be healed of their diseases. 
When the presence of Jesus was made known 
in village or town, it was the signal for the 
coming out of the afflicted. The reputation 
which had preceded him created unbounded 
confidence. Not long after the beginning of 
his ministry, when he was in Capernaum, “at 
even, when the sun did set, they brought unto 
him all that were sick, and them that were 
possessed with demons .” 3 When there came 
to him a leper, the “if” in the man’s petition 
implied no lack of confidence in Jesus’ ability, 
but rather a question whether Jesus would be 
interested enough in him to put forth that 
ability: “If thou wilt, thou canst make me 
1 Mark 6: 14. 2 Mark 1 : 32. 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 131 

clean .” 1 The insane people, of whom there 
were so many, recognized the sovereignty of 
his presence and his authority, and had suf- 
ficient reason left to conclude that only the 
Messiah could exercise such power. Hence we 
are told that “the unclean spirits, whensoever 
they beheld him, fell down before him, and 
cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.” * 

This confidence which the personality of 
Jesus everywhere inspired found its highest 
expression in “one of the rulers of the syna- 
gogue, Ja’irus by name.” 8 There was no “if” 
nor “yet” in his request. His confidence in 
Jesus’ willingness had kept pace with his confi- 
dence in Jesus’ ability: “My little daughter is 
at the point of death: I pray thee, that thou 
come and lay thy hands on her, that she may 
* be made whole and live.” 8 This conviction, 
which had been forming in the minds of the 
people among whom he moved, sometimes ex- 
pressed itself in ways quite superstitious. The 
power of Jesus’ personality became confused 
with magic. Even such an error involved the 
same fundamental confidence, and was worthy 
of reward. A woman “having heard the 

1 Mark 1:40. * Mark 3:11. ‘Mark 5:22,23, 


132 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


things concerning Jesus, came in the crowd 
behind, and touched his garment. For she 
said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be 
made whole. ,, 1 This wonderful record of the 
unbounded confidence which the personality of 
Jesus had created among those who passed by, 
is summed up in the brief history of his expe- 
rience in the land of Gennesaret : “Straightway 
the people knew him, and ran round about that 
whole region, and began to carry about on 
their beds those that were sick, where they 
heard he was. And wheresoever he entered, 
into villages, or into cities, or into the country, 
they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and 
besought him that they might touch if it were 
but the border of his garment.” 3 

The populace, when free from the influence 
of the scribes and Pharisees, received Jesus 
with the utmost enthusiasm. They recognized 
in him a man of marvelous influence, of unex- 
ampled power, of rich, attractive personality. 
He won them. When he was with them, he 
held their hearts. It is true that the mob in 
Jerusalem cried out in favor of his crucifixion. 
But when the people allowed themselves to 
1 Mark 5: 27, 28. 2 Mark 6: 54-56. 


JESUS AND THE PASSER-BY 


133 


come under his authority, he mastered them. 
His popularity was so great that on one occa- 
sion the house in which he was could not con- 
tain the people, and there was a crowd about 
the door . 1 The multitude followed him to the 
seaside , 3 and sometimes far into the coun- 
try . 3 At times the multitude even took his side 
against his adversaries, and rejoiced in his 
victories . 4 He created so much interest that 
when he appeared in the synagogue to speak, 
the eyes of all were fastened on him . 6 And 
when he had finished speaking, so great was 
the effect of his presence and words, that in 
their astonishment people asked one another, 
“Whence hath this man these things? ” 8 The 
conclusions which were drawn are evident 
from the fame which went out. It was com- 
monly reported, “A great prophet is arisen.” 7 
Some men were more definite, and decided, as 
has been noted, that he was John the Baptist, 
or even Elijah . 8 

The personality of Jesus evidently made a 
great impression on the passer-by. Even those 
who viewed him from a distance and came in 

1 Mark 2: 2. 2 Mark 2: 13. 8 Mark 6: 32, 33. 

4 Luke 13: 1 7. 8 Luke 4: 20. 4 Mark 6: 2. 

T Luke 7: 16, 17. 8 Mark 8: 28. 


134 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


contact with him only incidentally, felt the 
strange, subtle, indefinable power of his pres- 
ence. They could not pass him by without 
notice and comment. Wherever he went, 
attention was fixed upon him. 


JESUS WITH NATURE 







X 


JESUS WITH NATURE 

Nature has always been like an older sister 
to the great religious leaders of the world. She 
is man's friend and companion when man is at 
his best. Those who, with receptive souls, 

“ Go forth, under the open sky, and list 
To Nature’s teachings,” 1 

always hear her inarticulate but living lan- 
guage. She is a stern prophetess to the man 
who goes astray. She is a witness to the real- 
ity of God’s help to the man who is discour- 
aged, speaking in terms of an unconquerable 
hope. She has sympathy in sorrow and defeat 
for one who reads her heart. 

The Gospels are full of evidence of the de- 
pendence which Jesus put upon nature. They 
tell the story of a man who had read nature 
with close observation ; who found communion 
with God in contact with nature ; to whose soul 
the solitudes were resonant with voices ; whose 
1 Bryant, “ Thanatopsis.” 

137 


133 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


mind, when in search for illustration of great 
truth, went by instinct first to nature. If man- 
hood is a growth from roots which have struck 
deep in childhood, the early years of Jesus 
must have been spent much in the presence of 
nature, and in the sympathetic interpretation of 
its meanings. Those treasures of illustration 
which he brought forth so freely in his teaching 
ministry could have been laid up only as he 
read his Father’s book of nature as eagerly, 
intelligently, and appreciatively as he read his 
book of revelation. When the staleness and 
burden of life in street and house became too 
heavy, he went forth to worship in God’s own 
original temple. 

The Gospels present this relation between 
Jesus and nature in two aspects. The first is 
the ministry of nature to Jesus. The second is 
the mastery of Jesus over nature. The minis- 
try of nature to Jesus is evident in every crisis 
of his life. At the baptism it came in the form 
of a heaven rent asunder . 1 In the temptation it 
expressed itself as the coming of angel pres- 
ences . 3 In the transfiguration it was the en- 
shrouding cloud, articulate with the voices of 
1 Mark i : io. 2 Mark i : 13. 


JESUS WITH NATURE 


139 


the great . 1 In Gethsemane it was the gar- 
den , 3 where 

“The little gray leaves were kind to Him: 

The thorn-tree had a mind to Him, 

When into the woods He came.” 3 

One who feels such support from nature in 
great crises, must know her well in the com- 
monplaces. She presented to Jesus one great 
law, the law of sympathy which spoke of 
the eternal helpfulness of God. So that 
everywhere, 

“The same stared in the white humid faces upturned 
by the flowers, 

The same worked in the heart of the cedar and 
moved the vine-bowers: 

And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent 
and low, 

With their obstinate, all but hushed voices — ‘E’en 
so, it is so!’” 4 

The mastery of Jesus over nature appears 
not only in his complete understanding of all 
phases of nature, but also in the command 
which he exercised when he calmed the storm 
upon the Sea of Galilee/ or walked upon its 
waters/ or made the fig-tree to wither away/ 

1 Mark 9:4,7. 3 Mark 14:26. 

8 Lanier, “ A Ballad of Trees and the Master.” 

4 Browning, “ Saul.” 8 Mark 4: 39. 

• Mark 6: 48. 7 Mark 11 : 14, 20. 


i40 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


These two aspects of the relation of Jesus to 
nature constantly interplay throughout the inci- 
dents which the Gospels relate. 

Jesus’ thoughts were frequently reverting to 
those pastoral scenes with which he had be- 
come familiar in his youth, or turning to those 
which surrounded him when he was teaching. 
He had watched the sower as he “went forth to 
sow,” 1 and had followed him while he “sowed 
good seed in his field ,” 2 and had seen how the 
seed fell in many kinds of soil . 1 He had no- 
ticed how “the ground of a certain rich man 
brought forth plentifully,” 3 and how in an- 
other field, through the work of an enemy, 
“when the blade sprang up, and brought forth 
fruit, then appeared the tares also .” 2 He had 
seen the years of the plenteous harvest, when 
“the labourers are few,” 4 and when the house- 
holder “went out early in the morning to hire 
labourers.” 6 He had seen the results of plant- 
ing a vineyard, and setting a hedge about it, 
and digging a pit for the winepress, and 
building a tower, and letting “it out to 
husbandmen.” 6 

1 Mark 4: 3-8. 2 Matthew 13: 24-28. 3 Luke 12: 16. 

4 Matthew 9: 37. 6 Matthew 20: 1. 8 Mark 12: 1-9. 


JESUS WITH NATURE 


Hi 

Jesus had felt the urgent necessity which was 
upon a man who had one sheep, and could 
argue that “if this fall into a pit on the sabbath 
day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it 
out ? ” 1 The value of that one sheep he knew 
to be such, that though “any man have a hun- 
dred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, 
doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and 
go unto the mountains, and seek that which 
goeth astray?” 2 He knew so well the process 
by which “the shepherd separateth the sheep 
from the goats” that it became the basis of his 
thought of the great separation which shall take 
place “when the Son of man shall come in his 
glory.” 3 The protecting power of his person- 
ality he would have spread over his people, 
as “a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings .” 4 The strong attractions 5 which drew 
men toward the pastoral life he knew, as also 
the difficulties 8 which faced the man of the 
fields. And one of the ten derest and most 
hopeful and yearning words which have ever 
come to human ears rose out of the memory 
which Jesus had of his contact with nature in 

1 Matthew 12: 11. 2 Matthew 18: 12. 

8 Matthew 25: 31, 32. 4 Matthew 23: 37. 5 Luke 14: 19. 

0 Luke 14: 5 - 


142 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the fields: “Come unto me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you.” 1 

This great seer of nature, of whom Saint 
Francis is worthy to be called only the younger 
brother, delighted through the passing season 
to watch “the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear ” : 2 to stop by that which had 
become “greater than all the herbs,” 8 under 
which the birds of the heaven could lodge, and 
to consider how it had come forth from “a 
grain of mustard seed.” 3 And as he passed by 
the fields at the closing of the seasons, his 
thought became more serious when he paused 
to see men “gather up first the tares, and bind 
them in bundles to burn them.” 4 

Trees have always exercised a wonderful 
power over men, and have taught lessons of 
inestimable value. One lover of the trees has 
believed that 

“One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 

Of moral evil and of good, 

Than all the sages can.” s 

1 Matthew ii : 28, 29. s Mark 4: 28. 

* Mark 4: 3 i» 32. 4 Matthew 13: 30. 

5 Wordsworth, “ The Tables Turned.” 


JESUS WITH NATURE 


143 


The charm and meaning of the trees did not 
escape the notice of Jesus. He read and inter- 
preted their lessons. The patience of God was 
seen in the care which was given to the fig-tree 
which for three years had borne no fruit . 1 The 
fig-tree’s parable was read in the tender branch 
and the putting forth of its leaves . 3 The fate 
of the tree which brought not forth good fruit 
was to be cast away with the thorns and 
thistles . 3 But the good tree is known by its 
good fruit. When the final great trial was 
on him, he went out under the trees to seek 
his God, and to submit his will. It was “a 
place called Gethsemane” 4 on “the mount of 
Olives .” 8 

Jesus turned from the trees to notice also the 
flowers, and to read the splendid meaning of 
their beauty. Never have flowers been better 
loved or described. Never has human eye seen 
the flowers with more loving attention and 
appreciation than by him who said, “Consider 
the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil 
not, neither do they spin : yet I say unto you, 
that even Solomon in all his glory was not 


1 Luke 13: 6-9. 2 Matthew 24: 32. 8 Matthew 7: 19. 

4 Matthew 26: 36. 5 Luke 22: 39. 


144 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


arrayed like one of these.” 1 This is what Car- 
lyle truly calls, “A glance into the deepest deep 
of Beauty.” 2 Nor could such a seer pass over 
the lessons taught by the very “grass of the 
field,” 8 and the “reed shaken with the wind.” 4 
The moving things of the earth were also 
living symbols. They spoke to him messages 
which he in turn interpreted to men. The birds 
and animals were themselves parables. After 
his return from the wilderness, where “he was 
with the wild beasts,” s he opened these par- 
ables to be read of all men. God’s interest in 
the smallest and man’s indifference to the 
greatest made the abysmal contrast which he 
discovered. “Behold the birds of the heaven, 
that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor 
gather into barns; and your heavenly Father 
feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value 
than they? ” 9 Not even one of those two spar- 
rows which are sold for a farthing “shall fall 
on the ground without your Father.” T But 
while “the foxes have holes, and the birds of 
the heaven have nests, the Son of man hath 
not where to lay his head.” 8 

'Matthew 6:28,29. 'Carlyle, “The Hero as Poet.” 

* Matthew 6: 30. 4 Matthew 11:7. 8 Mark 1: 13. 

* Matthew 6; 26, 7 Matthew 10:29. 8 Matthew 8 : 20, 


JESUS WITH NATURE 


145 


We turn to what we call the grander aspects 
of nature, and we find that they exercised the 
power of their awe and inspiration over Jesus. 
He yielded himself to the leadership of their 
majestic authority, which pointed him on to 
God. He was sometimes among the moun- 
tains with the multitudes, healing 1 or teach- 
ing . 3 It was in such a place that he made the 
choice from all his followers of those who were 
to be his immediate disciples . 5 Sometimes he 
went among the mountains to be alone for 
prayer . 4 And once at least that sun which at 
its setting saw him there, found him again at 
its rising still worshiping in the same temple." 
It was to a “high mountain” 8 where he could 
be among the clouds, that he took his disciples 
for that disclosure of his soul which the Gos- 
pels call a “transfiguration.” 8 

Upon the ever-changing phases of river and 
lake Jesus often looked. He saw them in their 
passionate moods tossed into fury, and in their 
peaceful moods reflecting heaven. When the 
time for his appearing was at hand, he “came 
from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of 

1 Matthew 15: 29, 30. 2 Matthew 5: 1. 8 Mark 3: 13, 14. 

4 Matthew 14: 23. 8 Luke 6: 12. * Mark 9: 2. 


146 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


John in the Jordan.” 1 He often walked by the 
lake side. It was there that he saw Simon and 
Andrew and James and John, whom he called 
to follow him . 2 He sometimes chose such a 
place wherein to teach the multitude.* When 
of an early morning he found his disciples 
fishing vainly in the shallows, he commanded 
them to “put out into the deep.” 4 The lesson 
of the result could not be lost, for he asked 
them to observe that “the kingdom of heaven 
is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, 
and gathered of every kind .” 8 

The marvelous effect of the personality of 
Jesus upon his disciples comes out very clearly 
in his mastery over nature upon the sea. For 
about the fourth watch of a stormy night, when 
they were toiling, and distressed in the rowing, 
he came to them, “walking on the sea.” 8 His 
word was only a word of personal encourage- 
ment. It drew their attention from themselves 
to him. It reminded them of his fearlessness. 
“Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid.” * 
The effect was such that “they were sore 
amazed.” 8 At another time he was with them 

1 Mark 1:9. 2 Mark 1: 16-20. 8 Mark 4: 1. 

4 Luke 5:4. 8 Matthew 13: 47- e Mark 6:48-52. 


JESUS WITH NATURE 


H 7 


in the boat, and when he rebuked the wind, 
“there was a great calnl. ,, 1 His word, his 
mastery, called attention to his personality, and 
the disciples said “one to another, Who then is 
this ?” 1 

The sky, and the clouds made of that “divine 
marble which no tool can pollute nor ruin un- 
dermine,” 2 spoke to him in the language of the 
Infinite. The lightning was the symbol of that 
gleam which should be sent from pole to pole 
in the day of the Son of man , 3 or it was the 
prophecy of the final destruction of evil . 4 The 
red glow of the day’s morning or of the day’s 
evening was used to paint a picture whose col- 
ors should never fade . 5 The rising cloud of 
the west and the blowing of the south wind 
were models which he carved into the forms of 
the everlasting rock of truth . 5 He saw the 
goodness of God to all men in every rising of 
the sun and every shower . 7 When he went 
down into the water of Jordan to be baptized, 
he looked up to a heaven which to him was 
“rent asunder ,” 8 and when he was transfig- 

1 Mark 4: 39-41. 2 Ruskin, “ The Queen of the Air.” 

‘Luke 17:24. 4 Luke 10:18. 8 Matthew 16: 2,3. 

•Luke 12:54,55. ’Matthew 5: 45 - 'Mark 1:10. 


148 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ured before his disciples, “there came a cloud 
overshadowing them.” 1 

To Jesus nature was the shadow of a great 
reality, and that reality was God. Nature was 
articulate, and the voice which spoke through 
it was the voice of God. In nature’s compan- 
ionship he was reminded that God was Father, 
and that he was a “beloved Son .” 1 No man has 
ever read nature so truly and so profoundly. 

1 Mark 9: 7. 


THE ELOQUENCE OF JESUS 






XI 


THE ELOQUENCE OF JESUS 

After Jesus had finished speaking* in the 
synagogue at Nazareth, the people were aston- 
ished, and said, “Whence hath this man this 
wisdom ?”* The words of Jesus fitted the 
meaning of his message. There was sometimes 
the music of the harp. There was sometimes 
the voice of thunder. There were always 
beauty and power in his utterance. There 
were bursts of eloquence which pass beyond all 
oratory or poetry. For eloquence is never in a 
mere combination of fine words. It is never in 
that flow of language which is “full of sound 
and fury, signifying nothing.” Its essentials 
are purity of thought, sincerity of purpose, and 
simplicity of speech. Where these are there 
must be eloquence, as surely as the crystal 
spring must break out from the hillside be- 
neath which the currents of living water are 
flowing. 

Much of the best and highest utterance of 
great teachers has come forth from the love of 

Matthew 13- 54- 
I5i 


152 WHO THEN IS THIS 

nature. The eloquence of Jesus was the elo- 
quence of a child of nature. That soul which 
saw the essential beauty of the world, broke 
forth in utterance which was made beautiful by 
the source from which it came. It is difficult 
to illustrate this natural eloquence of Jesus with- 
out extended quotation. We shall therefore 
be obliged to notice only some occasions upon 
which it showed itself. There are parts of the 
Sermon on the Mount which for beauty of ex- 
pression and perfect adjustment of word to 
thought cannot be surpassed. When he called 
attention to “the birds of the heaven " 1 which 
sow not, nor reap, nor gather into barns ; or to 
“the lilies of the field," * which toil not, nor 
spin ; or when he warned his hearers to be like 
“a wise man, which built his house upon the 
rock," * he was speaking in the terms of a music 
which possessed his soul. That utterance about 
the “two sparrows sold for a farthing," 4 and 
that other about the sower who “went forth to 
sow ," 8 are like sketches by a master painter 
who uses only the colors which his mind has 
distilled from earth and sky. The eulogy 


‘Matthew 6: 26. 2 Matthew 6: 28. 3 Matthew 7: 24. 

4 Matthew 10: 29. 5 Mark 4: 3. 


THE ELOQUENCE OF JESUS 153 

which Jesus pronounced upon John the Bap- 
tist 1 has the breath of nature’s life and the 
beauty of nature’s own touch about it. 

The eloquence of Jesus was also of the sort 
that springs from a profound experience. Its 
beauty was not merely upon the surface. It 
was the reflection of the splendid realities 
which were deep in his soul. The existence of 
the spiritual world was his great certainty. He 
saw it ; he knew it. The material world was but 
a shadow of this other. The value of the ma- 
terial thing, when set over against the value 
of the spiritual reality, was nothing. For the 
sake of attaining that spiritual world he had 
made many sacrifices. Self-denial was no 
imaginary thing to him. Yet the true joy of 
life, according to his own personal solution of 
its problems, came to him who made the sacri- 
fices, while the woes were upon those who were 
not able to penetrate to the weightier matters 
of “judgment, and mercy, and faith.” 2 Out of 
this profound experience his words came forth 
with a beauty and power which the truth when 
touched and kindled by experience always has. 
What rugged grandeur of eloquence in these 

1 Matthew 11:7-11. 3 Matthew 23: 23. 


154 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


words: “If any man would come after me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 
follow me. For whosoever would save his life 
shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life 
for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it. For 
what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole 
world, and forfeit his life? For what should 
a man give in exchange for his life ?” 1 What 
reflections from a pure soul’s experience in that 
series of sayings from which this is only a 
sentence : “If thy hand cause thee to stumble, 
cut it off : it is good for thee to enter into life 
maimed, rather than having thy two hands to 
go into hell, into the unquenchable fire ” ! 2 
What beauty of utterance, expressive of a per- 
fect beauty of experience, is here : “Ask, and it 
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for 
every one that asketh receiveth; and he that 
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it 
shall be opened,” 8 or in those words which he 
introduced by saying, “Fay not up for your- 
selves treasures upon the earth.” 4 

The eloquence of Jesus was the eloquence 

1 Mark 8: 34-37- * Mark g: 43. 

8 Matthew 7: 7, 8. 4 Matthew 6: 19. 


THE ELOQUENCE OF JESUS 155 

of pure love and deep sympathy. These al- 
ways speak “with the tongues of men and of 
angels.” 1 Their utterance is always eloquent. 
That tenderness toward children which ex- 
pressed itself in deeds, when “he took them in 
his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands 
upon them,” * could not be other than musical 
when it expressed itself in words: “Suffer the 
little children to come unto me; forbid them 
not; for of such is the kingdom of God.” 3 
That was a wonderful burst of eloquence which 
was called forth when, as he was teaching, his 
mother and his brethren came to call him. 
Then he turned to those who sat about him and 
said, “Behold, my mother and my brethren! 
For whosoever shall do the will of God, the 
same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” 3 
Such splendid, thrilling words fill our Gospels, 
from their account of the beginning of his 
preaching and teaching to that time when, near 
the end of Jesus’ ministry, we read those 
stately, eloquent sentences : “I was an hungred, 
and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye 
gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took 
me in; naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, 

1 1 Corinthians 13: 1. * Mark 10: 14, 16. * Mark 3: 34, 35. 


156 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye 
came unto me.” 1 

This eloquence of purity, simplicity, and sin- 
cerity lies very near to the realm of poetry, and 
will often, almost unconsciously, invade that 
realm. For the essence of poetry is in feeling, 
and whether that feeling express itself in prose 
or verse, it is still poetical. “It is not metres, 
but a metre-making argument that makes a 
poem, — a thought so passionate and alive that 
like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an 
architecture of its own, and adorns nature with 
a new thing. The thought and the form are 
equal in the order of time, but in the order of 
genesis the thought is prior to the form.”* 
Another has expressed the same thought in 
even a better way, a way at least by which we 
can better approach the application of it to the 
words of Jesus: 

“Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, 

And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.” 8 

Judged by such a standard, who could refuse 
to admit Jesus to the circle of the great poets? 
Nor does his utterance prove inadequate to the 

! 

‘Matthew 25:35,36. ’Emerson, “The Poet.” 

* Bailey, “ Festus.” 


THE ELOQUENCE OF JESUS 


15 7 


expression of his feeling for the truth. His 
parables are poems; for each is a great and 
beautiful metaphor. The thirteenth chapter of 
Matthew is a poem in seven verses, and each 
verse is the setting of a diamond of new truth 
touched into glowing colors by the play of the 
light of feeling. The beatitudes are poetry in 
the profoundest sense, for they are the utter- 
ance of that music which is the perfect harmony 
of human nature and the universe. Though 
unrhymed and unrhythmed, is there better 
poetry than this : 

"‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven. 

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com- 
forted. 

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the 
earth. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness: for they shall be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be 
called sons of God. 

Blessed are they that have been persecuted for 
righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven.” 1 


1 Matthew 5:3-10. 








JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 



XII 

JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 

The Gospels paint for us the picture of a 
tempted man. Their brushes omit the halo 
which the later painters agreed to place upon 
Jesus’ head. They saw and reproduced the 
man who fought in the great world conflict; 
who felt the stress and strain of battle. He was 
not one who from cloud-land looked down up- 
on the evil, and from the safety of the far dis- 
tance inspired men to courage ; he was shoulder 
to shoulder with the men of his time; he was 
down on the battle-field, sharing in the heat of 
the conflict, pressing into the thick of the fight, 
throwing himself open to wounds from the 
fierce onslaught of the forces of evil. Such 
must be any man. From the very fact of his 
humanity he is open to temptation ; for tempta- 
tion resides in the necessary, common experi- 
ences of human life. There can be no joy 
which does not bring it, nor sorrow. There can 
be no hunger in which it does not lurk, nor 
thirst. There can be no pleasure which does 
not introduce it, nor pain. There can be no 
161 


162 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


hope of which it is not the companion, nor fear. 
Wherever we see a man, we see a tempted man. 

Temptation is as fierce and real to the good 
man as to the bad man. Indeed it is more real 
to the good man ; for its reality is felt only by 
resistance to it. The log which is floating down 
the river with the current cannot appreciate the 
force of that current; it is the ship which is 
forcing its way up the stream against the cur- 
rent, which feels the strength and measures the 
greatness of it. The strength of evil becomes 
real to a man only by antagonism to it, and 
in proportion to his antagonism. Temptation 
becomes gigantic to a man only when he takes 
his sling and stones from the brook and goes 
out on the open field with the purpose of smit- 
ing it down. From this point of view we can 
understand how Jesus was a tempted man. We 
appreciate not only the reality of his tempta- 
tions, but the surpassing reality of them; not 
only their strength, but their unique strength. 
We understand the historic meaning of those 
Gospel records which tell us that the public 
work of Jesus began with a forty days' conflict 
with temptation, and closed with an agony of 
temptation in Gethsemane, while the period 


JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 163 

which lay between was filled with a series of 
struggles which might have had a different out- 
come from that which appears. 

In another chapter we have studied the 
meaning of the temptations in the wilderness, 
as they stand related to the beginning of Jesus* 
public life. But those temptations are also typ- 
ical. They tell of an historic fact. They are 
at the same time an epitome of a tempted life. 
They are related to the whole career of one 
who felt them with special power in one crisis. 
They gather up into one paragraph experiences 
from which Jesus was never free. We are not 
dealing justly with them, therefore, unless we 
see them in their double relation. They must 
be understood as the temptations of a man 
about to enter upon his mission. They must 
also be understood as temptations which went 
with the man through the whole course of the 
fulfilment of his mission. In the latter mean- 
ing we shall deal with them in this chapter. 

There is something supremely majestic in 
the sight which confronts us when we look at 
Jesus and his temptations. It is a struggle of 
Titanic forces. We are looking on at the 
greatest battle in the history of human exist- 


164 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ence. No battle-field of all those which have 
been saturated with the life-blood of men is so 
monumental as that wilderness in which Jesus 
fought out the forty days’ conflict. It is no 
one-sided contest. The outcome is not certain 
from the beginning. The fighting is of the 
most serious sort. The determination to win 
an ultimate and unique victory is upon both 
sides. We look on with bated breath. On 
which side is the victory to rest? We cannot 
tell till we have followed it through, and the 
result is secured. Tribe may rise up against 
tribe, and nation against nation, but there is 
no such momentous conflict in human history 
as the conflict of forces in the soul of a man. 
Of all such our Gospels lead us to conclude 
that the mightiest was in the soul of Jesus. 

Temptations came to Jesus on the level of 
physical existence and need. The needs of 
physical existence assume the form of tempta- 
tion only when they conflict with a high prin- 
ciple which lies in the need of the soul. Bread 
to the hungry man is no temptation, unless the 
man in reaching after it must sacrifice his con- 
science. If to grasp it his soul must stoop, it 
offers the chance for sin. Yet the body craves 


JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 165 


it as eagerly as if it were to be eaten in inno- 
cence. There is no stronger craving, nor 
harder to subdue. The body says Must. If the 
soul says Must not, the battle-cry has sounded. 
Jesus had all the physical appetites. All the 
hungry cravings of the body made their de- 
mands upon him as they can appeal only to the 
man who has “fasted forty days and forty 
nights.” 1 The body said, These opportunities 
which are now lying about as useless as the 
stones under foot must be turned into means 
for the satisfaction of craving. The soul said, 
This must not be : my supremacy must be abso- 
lute : “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God.” 3 An illustration of this typical tempta- 
tion and of the splendid mastery of Jesus’ soul 
is found in the strong desire for personal safety 
which is a part of our human nature. So long 
as his personal safety was imperative to the 
success of his mission, he could eat of that 
bread without sacrificing to it any “word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” 2 We see 
him, therefore, near the beginning of his min- 
istry, guarding himself from the malice of the 


1 Matthew 4 : 2. 


2 Matthew 4 : 4. 


1 66 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Pharisees and Herodians, who were taking 
counsel against him, “how they might destroy 
him /’ 1 and withdrawing with his disciples to 
the sea. But there came a time when personal 
safety was not necessary. It ceased to be the 
bread of innocence, and he could no longer eat 
thereof. Then we see a man heroic in the face 
of his temptation. For never was he forced, 
except by that “word that proceedeth out of 
the mouth of God,” 2 to give himself up to his 
enemies. He was one of those who accepted 
not deliverance. It was nothing but the might 
of his own will and the majestic mastery of his 
own soul which held him in Jerusalem during 
those last days, or which, indeed, led him to go 
up to the feast. It was only victory over a 
temptation the power of which it is difficult to 
measure or conceive, which makes it possible 
for us to read that after the last supper with his 
disciples, “when they had sung a hymn, they 
went out unto the mount of Olives.” 3 That 
word “Gethsemane” has come to stand as a 
synonym for struggle with temptation, be- 
cause, deliverance being offered and escape 
being possible, Jesus would not accept. The 

1 Mark 3:6. 3 Matthew 4:4. 8 Mark 14 : 26. 


JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 167 

will of the man and the will of God were in 
open conflict. But the will of God prevailed 
over the will of man, even though the flesh 
was weak. With the sign of victory upon him, 
he went out to his disciples, saying, “Arise, let 
us be going: behold, he that betrayeth me is 
at hand.” 1 

There was another sort of temptation. It 
was the temptation to despair through impa- 
tience with his times and discouragement in 
his own work. How could the free, soaring 
spirit, which had its home in the broad heavens 
of truth, endure the narrow cage of formalism 
and senseless bigotry of his time? It was a 
constant trial. The light which required free 
air must burn in a fetid atmosphere. The 
water spring which needed a broad, clear chan- 
nel must pour into a stagnant pool. So was 
Jesus when “he was going on the sabbath day 
through the cornfields,” 3 or when “he entered 
again into the synagogue; and there was a 
man there which had his hand withered. And 
they watched him, whether he would heal him 
on the sabbath day.” 3 Such a soul could yield 
itself neither to the temptation to conform to 
1 Mark 14 : 42. 2 Mark 2 : 23. 3 Mark 3:1, 2. 


i68 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the times nor to the temptation to despair be- 
cause of the times. “When he had looked 
round about on them with anger, being grieved 
at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto 
the man, Stretch forth thy hand .” 1 Adding 
yet greater force to the irritation of impatience 
was the gross materialism of the time. Re- 
ligion must be made apparent to the senses. 
Proofs of the reality of the religious life must 
come in the form of visible and tangible facts. 
Men were constantly “seeking of him a sign 
from heaven.” 2 “And he sighed deeply in his 
spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation 
seek a sign? ” 2 

A yet deeper cause for despair through im- 
patience and discouragement lay in the inabil- 
ity of his friends and disciples to understand 
him, and to share his faith and hope. His 
parables they could not catch the meaning of. 
He must explain them as to children.* Even 
their experiences of his power did not give 
them confidence when the new tests came . 4 
They were impotent 8 in the face of just those 
works which he had specially empowered them 

l Mark 3:5. 3 Mark 8:11, 12. 8 Mark 4: 10, 13-20. 

* Mark 8 : 18-21. 8 Mark 9 : 18. 


JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 169 


to accomplish . 1 Just at that time when he was 
trying to teach them the deepest lesson of 
life, that victory is through sacrifice, he dis- 
covered that his disciples were disputing “one 
with another in the way, who was the great- 
est,” 3 and that two of them had set their am- 
bition upon the highest places in the coming 
kingdom . 3 

Jesus was under the constant temptation to 
lower his own ideals. The pressure from with- 
out was all downward. There were other 
things to be accomplished besides the one upon 
which he had set his heart. There were other 
ways of accomplishing that one thing. It is 
our human tendency to forget that “the good 
is often the enemy of the best,” that 

“Oftentimes to win us to our harm, 

The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s 
In deepest consequence.” 4 

On the typical side this is the interpretation 
of one of the temptations in the wilderness. 
Extend that third temptation out across the 
length of his life, and this is what it means. It 
was only by constant and prodigious effort that 

1 Mark 6:7. 2 Mark 9 : 34. 

3 Mark 10 : 37. 4 “ Macbeth.” 


170 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


he could keep his own ideal at its highest. All 
surroundings, all outcomes of effort were al- 
ways prompting him to lower that ideal and 
make it what men would call “more practical.” 
Results would then be certain. His place would 
then be established. He would be among the 
great ones of the earth. “All these things will 
I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and 
worship me .” 1 When the daily choice must 
be made between the way of popularity and 
the way of the cross, who can say that tempta- 
tion is not constant and potent? Those near- 
est to him added their demands to the general 
clamor, and became the mouthpieces for the 
expression of this temptation. His friends 
undertook to prevent him from carrying out 
his purpose . 3 “And Peter took him, and began 
to rebuke him” 3 for persisting in his way of the 
cross. When the voice of friendship is added 
to the voice of the world, and the man must 
stand alone, he is under a supreme test. 

Jesus was also under the temptations which 
went with his position. The temptations which 
accompany the possession of power are such 
that capitalists and labor leaders, kings and 
1 Matthew 4:9. * Mark 3:21. * Mark 8 : 32. 


JESUS AND HIS TEMPTATIONS 171 


priests, monarchies and republics have fallen 
before them. The splendid restraints of Jesus, 
in the face of a demand for a sign , 1 in the 
presence of Herod,* in the approach of the 
betrayer,* in his trial,* are highest evidence of 
the mastery which the man had gained over 
himself. 

Very notable is the fact, noted already indeed 
many thousands of times in the past, worthy 
to be noted for all future time, that in this 
record of a sorely tempted life, there is no evi- 
dence of sin. Temptations were everywhere, 
but we search in vain for any sign that he 
yielded. Profound religious experience is evi- 
dent, the need of prayer, dependence upon God, 
obedience to another will than his own. But 
one experience is nowhere recorded, the expe- 
rience of regret or remorse. He was humble 
but not humiliated, lowly, but not because of 
disgrace. This is a fact which we shall not now 
try to account for, but which must be accounted 
for sometime, and in some way. The body as- 
serted itself, but the soul was always supreme. 
He knew discouragement, but he knew not 

1 Mark 8 : 12. * Luke 23 : 8. 

8 Mark 14:43-45. ‘Mark 14:61. 


172 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


despair. He held to the end those ideals with 
which he started. Power, though he was 
conscious of its possession, he never abused. 
Our Gospels simply record these facts, and 
leave them unexplained, though explained they 
must be. 


THE MIND OF JESUS 










XIII 

THE MIND OF JESUS 


“Thought is deeper than all speech, 

Feeling is deeper than all thought; 

Souls to souls can never teach 
What unto themselves was taught. 

“We are spirits clad in veils; 

Man by man was never seen; 

All our deep communing fails 
To remove the shadowy screen.” 1 

The study of any mind must therefore end 
in incomplete results. There is no direct access 
to a man's thought. Words and actions are 
only effects. Thought is cause. The real 
world, therefore, which is the world of 
thought, must always be obscured. The real 
man, who is the thinking man, only partly 
expresses himself in speech. The greatest 
things are by their very nature incommuni- 
cable. Hence this study of the mind of Jesus 
cannot reach the full reality. The life of the 
rose must be judged by the vigor of the plant 
and the flush of the petals. Life itself cannot 
be studied. 

1 Cranch, “ Stanzas.” 

175 


176 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Jesus came into the possession of knowledge 
by those channels which are open to all men. 
Our Gospels suggest no other possibility. The 
way in which Jesus came into possession of his 
world has been treated in the chapter on “The 
Development of Jesus by Acquisition.” If in 
any degree knowledge came to him in other 
than by human methods, he is in that measure 
separated from human life. “A human mind 
can only know in accordance with the laws and 
conditions of the human mind and of human 
knowledge. When it knows outside of these, 
it is not a human mind.” 1 

Our interest in the personality of any man 
depends largely upon the mind of the man. 
The quality of that mind, its methods of gain- 
ing knowledge, its ability to retain information, 
its point of view in looking at the world of 
truth, its power to convey its knowledge to 
other minds in attractive ways, its own original 
way of passing on from truth to truth by the 
paths of logic — all these constitute a large 
part of the charm and power of the man in his 
relations with other men. All these are mat- 
ters of utmost interest and ultimate importance 
1 Du Bose, “The Soteriology of the New Testament.” 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


1 77 


in our study of the personality of Jesus. Yet 
the field is so large that it is impossible to cover 
it all. The whole Gospel story bears upon this 
subject. We are obliged to limit ourselves to 
the consideration of a few essential features. 

Jesus thought by the methods and in the 
terms of the time in which he lived. He was 
not an anachronism. This is not to say that 
the truth which he uttered was temporary. It 
is not to limit his usefulness to a single genera- 
tion. His truth is universal; his usefulness 
as great today as yesterday. But he was intel- 
ligible to the men of his own time, and in order 
to be so, it was necessary that he think in the 
terms of his own time. He expressed himself 
in the essential language of the people to whom 
he spoke. His utterance, as far as that is pos- 
sible, was the result of his own methods of 
arriving at truth. Our belief in his absolute 
integrity makes this conclusion necessary. We 
cannot suppose that his speech was other than 
the unreserved expression of his thought. He 
started from premises which he held in com- 
mon with the men about him. With them he 
studied the Pentateuch as the books of Moses ; 1 

1 Mark 7: 10. 


178 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


thought of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as 
central figures in the coming kingdom ; 1 looked 
with pity upon men who were possessed with 
demons ; 2 and knew not the day nor the hour 
when all those things of which he spoke were 
to be accomplished . 3 From these premises, we 
shall presently see how Jesus passed on to such 
majestic and sublime conceptions as “nothing 
in the extant intellectual or spiritual posses- 
sions of mankind can match.” 4 

We cannot study the Gospels without having 
our attention arrested by the fact of the mem- 
ory of Jesus. The important bearing of his 
youth upon his teaching we have already 
noticed. Fatherhood, love, obedience, sacrifice, 
these great conceptions he carried over into 
manhood. When he had been fairly launched 
in the activities of his ministry, he was drawn 
by irresistible attraction to the old home where 
he had learned such sweet and important and 
enduring lessons . 8 His memory was stored 
with the literature of his people. He was al- 
ways ready with his references to the Old 
Testament. When the Pharisees accused him 

1 Matthew 8 : ii. * Mark 9:21. ‘Mark 13:32. 

4 Gordon, “ Ultimate Conceptions of Faith.” 

8 Mark 6 : 1. 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


179 


of an unlawful use of the Sabbath, he justified 
himself by recalling the case of David in the 
days of Abiathar . 1 He silenced those who 
criticized his disciples for eating with un- 
washen hands with quotations from Isaiah and 
Moses . 2 He was ready to make a hasty resume 
of the commandments 3 or to apply a saying 
from one of the Psalms to his own place in 
society . 4 His relation to the innocence of 
childhood , 6 no less than to the selfishness of 
the traders who invaded the temple , 6 found its 
explanation in the sayings of the men of old. 
The power of Jesus' memory appeared in as- 
sisting his friends, and in silencing his foes. 
It was a distinct factor in shaping men's con- 
ception of his personality. 

The mind of Jesus had a wonderful poise. 
His zeal for the truth never took him over into 
fanaticism. His enthusiasm for the kingdom 
never seduced him into the attempt to coerce. 
His absolute confidence in his mission never 
led him to abuse those who did not receive 
him. Neither the thoughtless zeal of the dis- 
ciples on the one hand, nor the irritating inertia 

1 Mark 2 : 25, 26. 2 Mark 7 : 6, 10. 8 Mark 10 : 19. 

4 Mark 12 : 10. 6 Matthew 21 : 16. 6 Mark 11 : 17. 


i8o 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


of the Pharisees on the other, lured him into 
unreasonable extremes. In forming a judg- 
ment of the extraordinary character of Peter, 
Jesus’ confidence in the man’s essential strength 
was not shaken because the disciple rebuked 
him for his willingness to suffer , 1 his knowl- 
edge of a serious weakness was not dimmed 
by the disciple’s protestation of unbounded 
loyalty , 2 his readiness to condemn the disciple’s 
error was not weakened because he had de- 
termined to found his Church upon such men . 3 
Jesus’ love for two of his followers, and the 
joy which he must have felt in their acceptance 
of his baptism, did not modify his statement of 
the inevitable law that the highest honor of the 
kingdom could be given only to those “for 
whom it hath been prepared.” 4 And great as 
was the temptation, he did not overstep him- 
self, as others have done, in attempting to set 
a time for the consummation of all things, 
but confessed : “Of that day or that hour know- 
eth no one, not even the angels in heaven, 
neither the Son, but the Father.” 6 

The mind of Jesus was always open to re- 

1 Mark 8 : 32, 33. 2 Mark 14 : 29, 30. 8 Matthew 16 : 18. 

4 Mark 10 : 40. 8 Mark 13 : 32. 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


181 

ceive new knowledge. It was eagerly receptive. 
He did not share the narrow bigotry of the 
Pharisees, whose knowledge seemed to them 
to be final, and who closed their minds against 
the coming of new light. Self-sufficiency is 
the narrowness of small minds. Unquenchable 
thirst, insatiable and infinite longing is the 
greatness of great minds. The only picture 
which we have of his youth represents him in 
the temple, “sitting in the midst of the doctors, 
both hearing them, and asking them ques- 
tions. ,, 1 Here and there in his ministry we 
come upon him as he is seeking information. 
When he found himself in a desert place with a 
multitude which he could not send away, he 
said to his disciples: “How many loaves have 
ye? go and see. And when they knew, they 
say, Five, and two fishes.” 3 His pity for the 
poor demoniac boy, whom the disciples were 
unable to heal, expressed itself in that question 
which it is the first instinct of a man to ask in 
such extremity, “How long time is it since this 
hath come unto him? ” 8 When he was going 
up from Bethany to Jerusalem, “seeing a fig 
tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he 

1 Luke 2:4 6. 2 Mark 6 : 38. 8 Mark 9 : 21. 


l8 2 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


might find anything thereon.” 1 * The unbelief 
of his fellow townsmen 3 in Nazareth caused 
him to marvel no less than the unexampled 
faith of a centurion . 3 

The power and supremacy of Jesus 3 intellect 
appeared as if written in light, whenever he 
entered into argument. There were keen minds 
among the men of his time, accustomed to all 
the subtlety of the law. They were trained in 
the prevailing methods of the schools of logic. 
These were the men whom Jesus was forced to 
meet in the open field of argument. The clear 
and easy supremacy of Jesus in every such con- 
test is one of the strongest witnesses to the 
power of his intellect. When the scribes who 
came down from Jerusalem said, “He hath 
Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the devils 
casteth he out the devils , 33 * a single flash of 
light from his mind disclosed them in a 
reductio ad absurdum. When he in turn went 
up to Jerusalem, and met in the temple the best 
men of his time, “the chief priests, and the 
scribes, and the elders , 33 8 he easily baffled them 
when they undertook to catch him in the ques- 

1 Mark ii : 13. * Mark 6:6. 8 Matthew 8: 10. 

4 Mark 3: 22. 5 Mark 11 : 27. 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


183 


tion, “By what authority doest thou these 
things ? ” 1 Even when these best men of his 
time made choice from their own number of 
those whom they might send to him to “catch 
him in talk,” 2 he towered above them in such 
easy and majestic supremacy, that “they mar- 
velled greatly at him.” 8 At last, after a ven- 
turesome scribe had made one more attempt and 
had been defeated, those best men of his time 
recognized and acknowledged his mental mas- 
tery with such awe that “no man after that 
durst ask him any question.” 4 Then he, victo- 
rious and unanswered, assumed the offensive, 
with his question, “How say the scribes that 
the Christ is the son of David ? ” 6 

Those scenes in the temple on the Tuesday 
of that last week were memorable scenes, 
worthy to be studied with greater care than 
ever yet they have been, full of the note of 
victory, crowded with the evidences of su- 
premacy. They show a man whose mind in 
argument was clear, persuasive, masterful, 
unconquered. 

The mind of Jesus possessed a surprising, a 

1 Mark 11: 28. 2 Mark 12:13. 8 Mark 12:17. 

4 Mark 12:34. 8 Mark 12:35. 


184 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


startling power of penetration, and therefore it 
was a mind of great originality. He had an 
intuition for essential realities. He saw imme- 
diately the elemental truths. The power of 
insight was unexampled. The tangles of con- 
ventionality and the snarls of artifice did not 
confuse him. He penetrated at once to the heart 
of things. Moral issues were not obscured. 
They stood out from the mass and maze of 
custom more clearly than the ideal of any sculp- 
tor ever took form in the shapeless marble. 
This is the more remarkable from the fact that 
the time in which Jesus lived was a time of end- 
less discussions upon the unessentials of the re- 
ligious life. The light of his mind stands out 
in sharp outline against the obscurity of the 
age, as the lightning plows its quick, clear 
way across the background of deep clouds. In 
the midst of ceaseless and profitless discussion 
on the religious necessity of washing before 
eating, Jesus’ mind at once detected the essen- 
tial truth, “That which proceedeth out of the 
man, that defileth the man . . . evil things 
proceed from within.” 1 Out of the confusions 
of the laws of Moses, Jesus brought forth the 


1 Mark 7 : 20, 23. 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


185 


final statement of the law of divorce . 1 The 
mind of Jesus was able to read the thoughts 
and motives of childhood so readily and with 
so much sympathy that he could make the child 
life the type of all life within the kingdom . 2 
Nor did the complex hypocrisy of the Pharisee 
obscure from him the motive of the Pharisee . 3 
The attitude toward life of the man with one 
talent was as clear as that of the man with five 
talents, and he could picture the motives and 
methods of one as clearly as of the other . 4 He 
understood so well the mental processes of his 
disciples that at times they had no need to tell 
him what they were thinking of, for he read 
their thoughts in their faces and their moods . 3 
And when an honest man came to him, a man 
whom he could readily love, to ask the way 
into the kingdom, Jesus read the particular 
weakness of that nature so quickly that his an- 
swer fitted perfectly the individual need . 6 

Such clarity of thought was in large measure 
the result of purity of life. We have already 
seen that Jesus was a sinless man. What a 
mighty bearing does that fact have upon the 

1 Mark 10: 11, 12. 2 Mark 10: 15. * Matthew 23: 4-7. 

4 Matthew 25: 14-25. 0 Mark 8: 17; Luke 9: 46, 47- 

6 Mark 10: 21. 


1 86 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


mind of Jesus! The pure in heart shall see 
God. We find ourselves at this point in the 
study of the personality of Jesus without means 
of comparison. In purity Jesus stands alone. 
Therefore in insight Jesus stands alone. What 
are the limits of the power of a mind which has 
been untouched by sin ? There is no answer to 
that question in all the range of human experi- 
ence except in the fact which is now before us. 
Sin builds a wall around the human mind and 
shuts it off from eternity, from the knowledge 
of the infinite. “It is not possible that selfish- 
ness should reason rightly in any respect, but 
must be blind in its estimation of the worthi- 
ness of all things ; neither anger, for that over- 
powers the reason or outcries it; neither 
sensuality, for that overgrows and chokes it; 
neither agitation, for that has no time to com- 
pare things together; neither enmity, for that 
must be unjust; neither fear, for that exagger- 
ates all things ; neither cunning and deceit, for 
that which is voluntarily untrue will soon be 
unwittingly so; but the great reasoners are 
self-command, and trust unagitated, and deep- 
est Love and Faith.” 1 This fact must always 


Ruskin, “ Modern Painters.’ 


THE MIND OF JESUS 


187 


be reckoned with in judging the power of 
Jesus’ mind, and the authority of Jesus’ teach- 
ing. From the purity of Jesus we are led 
by inexorable logic to the absolute religious 
authority of Jesus. From the sinlessness of 
Jesus we are led by an inevitable process to 
the finality of those truths which the mind of 
Jesus grasped. The veils of flattery and 
hypocrisy, 1 of shams and disguises, 3 did not 
for a moment delay the processes of his mind 
as it went penetrating through to the essential 
truths. That which the world was groping 
for, he saw. That which the world was feeling 
out after, he grasped. That which the world 
was unable to discern, he saw. The mind of 
the perfectly pure man reached and took pos- 
session of all the ultimate realities of life. 


1 Mark 12 : 15. 


a Mark 10 : 31. 



JESUS AS A TEACHER 




XIV 

JESUS AS A TEACHER 

The personality of a teacher is his largest 
asset. The subject with which he deals is not 
more important. The barren personality will 
rob the richest subject of its profit. The rich 
personality will add great value to the most 
barren theme. In Jesus as a teacher, the rich- 
est personality and the highest theme were 
combined. His appeal to men went out 
through both of these broad, open channels. 
With the content of his teaching we are not 
now concerned. We turn our attention only 
to the personality of the teacher. There was 
something in him which fixed attention, and 
made effective the truth which he spoke. Peo- 
ple found themselves giving him a surprised 
recognition. When he spoke to them the eyes 
of all were fixed upon him . 1 They gathered 
about him; they followed him: they were 
amazed at the power with which he spoke.' 

A large part of this indescribable charm and 
attractiveness of Jesus, while he taught, was 
due to the fact which we have just noticed in 
1 Luke 4 : 20. 3 Mark 6: 2. 

191 


192 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the last chapter. Purity of life had given him 
the key to the mystery of life. The stainless 
mind had become the master mind. This purity 
and stainlessness took hold in ways which were 
beyond accounting for upon the attention of 
the people who listened to him. It is not diffi- 
cult to picture him in imagination, as he 
gathered those who felt this power of his per- 
sonality. There was no need to found a school. 
There was no need of buildings and the out- 
ward signs of a successful teacher. He gave 
his instruction wherever he found a listener; 
and with such a teacher there is never lack of 
auditors. There was no need of appointing 
hours for those who wished to come under his 
instruction. The event of the moment was his 
occasion, and the day was not long enough to 
exhaust the resources of this teacher. He was 
most unconventional. The hillside , 1 or the 
seaside , 2 the desert places far from villages," 
the house of a friend in the town , 4 or the feast- 
ing room of a Pharisee 5 served him for place 
and occasion. Some heard gladly, approv- 
ingly; others with darkening, stormy faces of 

1 Matthew 5:1. “Mark 2:13. 3 Mark 6:32, 33. 

4 Mark 2:1. 6 Luke 11 : 37; Mark 7: 3. 


JESUS AS A TEACHER 


193 


opposition, and thunderous words of disap- 
proval; but all felt the power with which this 
teacher held them. 

Jesus’ method was that of the object-lesson. 
His teaching was not in abstract forms, but 
with concrete illustrations. He simplified the 
deepest truth. He brought the most remote 
realities of life so near that people could not 
believe that what they saw was the final truth. 
Common life furnished objects which were 
capable of bearing the symbolism of the great- 
est mysteries of existence. A whole realm of 
human experience was comprehended in the 
figure of the sower who “went forth to sow.” 1 
His parables were of that simple sort which 
for those whose eyes were opened to behold, 
threw all necessary light upon objects before 
unseen. But, as he said , 2 they only served to 
dazzle and puzzle those who were blind to 
truth. This was not because of their obscur- 
ity, but because of their transparency and 
luminousness. The lamp upon its stand, or 
hidden away ; * the salt, the light and the city ; 4 
the mustard seed , 5 and the falling sparrow ; 8 

1 Mark 4:3. 1 Matthew 13 : 12, 13. 8 Mark 4: 21. 

* Matthew 5: 13, 14- 8 Mark 4: 31. 6 Matthew 10: 29. 


194 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the widow in the temple , 1 and the child passing 
on the street 2 — these were the common ob- 
jects which he held up before his hearers, by 
which he made clear the essential facts of the 
eternal life. 

This method was made useful and effective 
because one great truth possessed him. He had 
something to say which was of supreme im- 
portance. His thought was concentrated upon 
one majestic truth. This enriched and made 
fascinating his personality. The teacher who 
has no message has no attractiveness. Beyond 
the power to point out facts, must be the power 
to interpret facts in the highest terms. The 
presence and reality of the spiritual world filled 
and possessed the mind of Jesus. To reveal 
this was his mission, to speak of this was his 
message. The world to him was a living 
world, therefore his message was a vital mes- 
sage. When he explained to his disciples the 
parable of the sower, it was to say to them: 
“Unto you is given the mystery of the king- 
dom of God/’ * In the midst of the life of 
eating and drinking, of food and raiment, the 
thing of first importance to seek was “his king- 

1 Mark 12:43. 2 Mark 9:36. 8 Mark 4:11. 


JESUS AS A TEACHER 195 

dom, and his righteousness ,” 1 * If he talked 
about the hundred sheep, and the one which 
had gone astray, the beauty and the pathos 
of the story were nothing except in the appli- 
cation, that “it is not the will of your Father 
which is in heaven, that one of these little ones 
should perish .” 3 The three things which 
touch the average person most closely, his 
property, his money, his family, find their real 
meaning only when they are interpreted into 
the terms of the spiritual world . 3 Possessed 
by a single truth, and the passion for imparting 
that truth, Jesus saw the whole world in the 
light of it, and made his impression through 
his personality as a teacher by his concentra- 
tion of thought upon it. 

The magnitude of his message and the su- 
preme importance of the truth which he im- 
parted made him also an absolutely fearless 
teacher . 4 

The substance of Jesus’ teaching was taken 
out of his own experience. The truth which 
he taught was a part of him, had been made a 
part of him through years of contact with life. 


1 Matthew 6: 25-33. 

8 Luke 15:3-32. 


2 Matthew 18: 14. 
4 Matthew 12:34. 


196 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


He asked no man to assume a yoke which he 
had not himself already worn . 1 He invited 
no man into an experience with which he was 
not already familiar . 3 “His whole message to 
man was but the interpretation of himself. ,, 3 
Truth had become incarnate in him. The per- 
sonality of the man was itself the great object- 
lesson. This gave him absolute confidence in 
the word which he uttered. In response to 
every question which might arise 

“The heart 

Stood up and answer’d, * I have felt.’ ” 4 

The watchfulness 5 and goodness 6 of God as 
compared with the same high qualities in an 
earthly home had become a part of his pro- 
found certainty. The bitter regret of him who 
should cause one of God’s little ones to stumble 
was but the reverse side of that sweet joy 
which he had himself felt in the giving of “a 
cup of cold water .” 7 The rewards of God 
were not far-away but present realities. He 
spoke as one who knew the power of prayer, 

1 Matthew 11:29. 2 Matthew 20: 22. 

* Fairbairn, “ The Place of Christ in Modern Theology.” 

4 Tennyson, “ In Memoriam.” * Matthew 6 : 8. 

* Matthew 7:11. 7 Matthew 10 : 42. 


JESUS AS A TEACHER 


197 


and the way by which its answers come. 1 
When he called “unto him the multitude with 
his disciples, and said unto them, If any man 
would come after me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross, and follow me,” 2 he 
was doing no more than teaching them a 
principle of life which he had himself adopted, 
and inviting them to walk in a way of life 
which he had himself already trodden. The 
companionship of Jesus in thought, in service, 
and in sacrifice was assured to all who accepted 
his instruction. The personality of the teacher 
was a large part of this teacher’s attractiveness. 

Out of his profound experience, which itself 
began in purity of thought and life, came forth 
his supreme authority. This was the essential 
difference between his teaching and the instruc- 
tion of others of his time. To them truth was 
a distant object, about which they spoke. It 
was a star, and a whole system of astronomy 
must be learned before it could be understood. 
To him truth was near at hand. It was in him. 
It had become a part of him through experi- 
ence. He could therefore bring it forth where 
the unlearned could behold its beauty and its 
1 Mark n : 24. a Mark 8: 34. 


198 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


power. Nothing can shake the confidence 
which is gained through such experience. Au- 
thority is always built upon it. When we con- 
sider, therefore, that the content of Jesus’ 
teaching came out of his experience, and that 
his experience was that of a perfectly pure 
soul, we cannot be surprised to find that the 
people “were astonished at his teaching : for he 
taught them as having authority, and not as 
the scribes .” 1 He rose so far above these 
other teachers that he was forced to warn his 
listeners, and to tell them that except their 
“righteousness shall exceed the righteousness 
of the scribes and Pharisees ,” 2 they should 
not enter into the kingdom. More minutely he 
gave warning to his own inner circle of disci- 
ples that they “beware of the leaven of the 
Pharisees.” 3 His confidence he was able to 
pass on to others, as soon as they began to 
enter into his experiences, so that he could 
“send them forth to preach.” 4 The authority 
of Jesus as a teacher was so pronounced that 
even near the beginning of his ministry, when 
he assumed the right to forgive the sins of an 


1 Mark i : 22. 
•Mark 8:15. 


•Matthew 5:20. 
4 Mark 3: 14. 


JESUS AS A TEACHER 


m 


unfortunate man, there were those who ques- 
tioned the assumption , 1 and at the end of his 
ministry this was one of the most serious of 
the questions which was put to him : “By what 
authority doest thou these things ? or who gave 
thee this authority to do these things ? ” * The 
authority of profound religious experience was 
utterly unknown to such questioners. 

Such experience is also a prophet. It opens 
the secrets of the future. The mystery of 
God's law is revealed to it. It is able to offer 
the true invocation to that Spirit that prefers 

“ Before all temples the upright heart and pure.” * 

The great essential features of the future were 
clear to Jesus. He spoke with confidence un- 
shaken and unassailable about them. Before 
the eyes of the Sadducees who questioned him, 
he drew with a few bold strokes a picture of 
the future life . 4 The certainty of rewards and 
punishment pervaded his teaching . 5 He warned 
his hearers to keep oil in their lamps as those 
who are watchful and ready . 45 He saw that the 
final separation of man from man and nation 

1 Mark 2: 5-7. * Mark 11 : 28. 

’Milton, “Paradise Lost.” 4 Mark 12:24-27. 

8 Matthew 25: 23, 28. 8 Matthew 25: 4, 13. 


200 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


from nation would be based upon relation to 
him and to his word . 1 And as if his disciples 
might wonder whether he had told them all 
that it was necessary to know, he said to 
them: “Behold, I have told you all things 
beforehand /’ 2 

Jesus as a teacher stands out against the 
background of history by the simplicity and 
strength of his personality. If we could take 
away the man from the word which he spoke, 
we should lose the essence of its greatness. 
Confidence and conviction characterized him, 
both springing from a profound experience. 
The truths which he taught could not be sepa- 
rated from the man who taught them. He 
therefore embodied the double power of truth 
and of personality, so that the deep secret of 
his influence as a teacher could be fully known 
only by those who responded to that word 
which was at the heart of all his teaching: 
“Come unto me.” * 

1 Matthew 25: 32, 40, 45. * Mark 13: 23. 

* Matthew 1 1 : 28. 


THE WILE OF JESUS 




XV 

THE WILE OF JESUS 

In some aspects of his personality Jesus is 
comparable with the finer, milder phases of na- 
ture, the sunshine and the summer shower, the 
flower and the wooing brook. In other as- 
pects, he is comparable only with the sterner 
phases of nature, and the stronger, sturdier 
products of nature, the oak, the granite, the 
waterfall, the mountain, the lightning. To- 
ward these latter aspects we now turn. For we 
are face to face with the will of Jesus. More 
than physical appearance, more than form and 
face, more than tones and accents of speech, 
more even than the force and keenness of the 
mind, as much at least as the love of the heart, 
the will of a man contributes to determine the 
sort of personality which he presents to the 
world. The iron will is stronger than the scep- 
ter of a king. The will which is of sand is 
weaker than the petition of the humblest sub- 
ject. The man of fine mind and deep emo- 
tions may build a house both large and 
beautiful, but if it is not built upon the rock of 
the will, when the rains descend, and the floods 


203 


204 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


come, and the winds blow, it is certain to fall. 
The power of the will is the foundation for 
strong, permanent, dominant personality. 

The personality of Jesus was built upon a 
will of rock. That rock was never removed 
from its place. It resisted all human forces 
which were arrayed against it to remove or to 
shatter. There is no strength in nature which 
is fully adequate as a description of it. The 
oak is not, for that must at last fall and decay. 
The mountain is not, for that is changing by 
imperceptible degrees, and must sometime yield 
to the forces of the ages. Nor is the granite, 
for men take that up out of the earth, and 
shape it at their pleasure. The power of an 
unbroken human will stands apart from all 
nature, for it defies even that great final catas- 
trophe in which “the heavens shall be rolled 
together as a scroll.” 1 The will of Jesus was 
the will of a man who might be heard to say : 

“ I count life just a stuff 
To try the soul’s strength on.” * 

Especially in our approach to this subject 
are we made aware that we are dealing with 

1 Isaiah 34:4. ‘Browning, “In a Balcony.” 


THE WILL OF JESUS 


205 


something which cannot be defined, and is in- 
deed beyond all analysis. The will of Jesus 
was always distinctly religious. It was bound 
up so closely with the will of God as to be in- 
separable from it. This fact makes its total 
meaning unapproachable. Yet are we bound 
to study it. It is our right to lay reverent 
hands upon it, not in the hope of bringing it all 
within the sphere of our observation, but in 
the hope of understanding some measure of its 
great meaning. Without presumption there- 
fore we approach this subject. 

The total moral value of the will of Jesus 
to the world depends upon its freedom. If 
Jesus was a mere actor, his life was indeed, 
‘Tull of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” 
If he was a machine, going through certain 
predetermined and mechanical motions, he is 
not even interesting. The majesty of his 
resistance to sin is based solely upon the possi- 
bility of his sinning. The grandeur of the out- 
lines of his personality rises only before one 
who understands that he might have yielded. 

There is no development of the will, cer- 
tainly no grandeur of the will, except in the 
presence of choices. The will assumes its 


206 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


moral value and its moral splendor when its 
choices are the choices between good and evil. 
All the value and interest of the Gospel records 
of Jesus rest upon the premise that he who 
was a sinless man might have become a sinner; 
that he who was a giant of strength might 
have been, upon the pages of history, only one 
among the many. Deliberate choices, while 
comforts, ease, pleasure, ambition, success, and 
all the lower calls of life were making their 
appeals, Jesus had to make. It is in the cer- 
tainty of this fact that we can see the stateli- 
ness of Jesus’ unconquered will. 

Jesus saw the inevitable consequences of the 
course which he chose to pursue. He did not 
see them in all their clear details at the begin- 
ning. But the probability he always had to 
reckon with. As the months went on, proba- 
bility grew into certainty. The ominous warn- 
ing came to his spirit with the threatening 
sound of danger. That sound was ever grow- 
ing more distinct and more dreadful as time 
went on. In the face of this fact, Jesus made 
his choices. He chose to undertake a work 
which would bring him into conflict with all 
the baser elements in human nature. He chose 


THE WILL OF JESUS 


207 


to do that work in a way which would antago- 
nize all the legal and moral authorities of his 
time. Both as to the meaning of his life, and 
as to the interpretation to the world of that 
meaning we must needs remember that Jesus 
might have come to quite different decisions. 
The splendor and the majesty of his will are 
seen only when we remember that it was in the 
face of the knowledge of the difficulties and in- 
superable obstacles which were in his way, that 
he deliberately made his choices. This is the 
sublimity of it. A heroic heart spoke to and 
encouraged and fortified an invincible will with 
the whispers of its own great philosophy: 

“Oh, fear not in a world like this, 

And thou shalt know erelong, — 

Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong.” 1 

In the mighty struggle of the temptation in 
the wilderness all these realities spread them- 
selves out before the mind of Jesus. With the 
whispers of the heart speaking to him he went 
out to that trial. It was the supreme test of 
the power of his will. If we can imagine that 
Jesus had confided to a friend his emotions and 

• Longfellow, “The Light of Stars.” 


«o8 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


conflicts before he went, we must think of that 
friend waiting in fearful suspense for the re- 
turn of Jesus and the outcome of the struggle. 
While Jesus was counting the costs of his pur- 
pose and conviction; while he was weighing 
the ambitions of genius and the desires for 
power over against the persistent sense of a 
noble duty, that friend would have watched at 
the threshold of the wilderness for the appear- 
ing of a figure advancing slowly and with hesi- 
tating steps, or one erect and kingly in the 
certainty of a victory already gained and the 
confidence of ability to fight out the battle to 
the end. So much depended upon those days 
in the wilderness! Their result was the su- 
premacy of the will. 

That Jesus was facing a stern and dark prob- 
ability is evidenced throughout the Gospels. 
He had it in his thought when the disciples of 
John and the Pharisees came to him to criticize 
his disciples because they did not follow the 
strictest rules of fasting. “And Jesus said unto 
them, Can the sons of the bride-chamber fast, 
while the bridegroom is with them? as long 
as they have the bridegroom with them, they 
cannot fast. But the days will come, when 


THE WILL OF JESUS 209 

the bridegroom shall be taken away from 
them, and then will they fast in that day .” 1 
This menacing probability grew into a cer- 
tainty, so that at the time of the transfiguration, 
Jesus began to share his emotions with his 
disciples, teaching them “that the Son of man 
must suffer many things . . . and be killed.” a 

The stateliness of Jesus 1 will grows apace as 
he approaches the end. It was not fear which 
that will had to stand up against. In a man of 
such heroic spirit there is no fear of death. For 
to every man, that necessary end “will come 
when it will come.” But the young man, full 
of hopes, full of enthusiasms, full of plans, 
with the large outlook over life, with the cer- 
tainty of a broad and useful mission for the 
world, when he sees standing side by side with 
that gaunt figure, another more terrible than 
it, the figure of failure, and disappointment, 
and incompleteness, must summon up every 
power of his will to advance with steady step 
toward such a company. While he seemed to 
be perishing in the wreck of his own work, 
standing alone amid the panic of those whom 
he had called to man the doomed ship with 

* Mark 8: 31. 


1 Mark 2: 19, 20. 


210 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


him, his will stood erect with a calm mastery 
over all his powers, as he said, '‘The hour is 
come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into 
the hands of sinners.” 1 

Next to the wilderness, Gethsemane was the 
greatest test of Jesus’ will. In some respects it 
was a severer test. It was, however, not so 
critical, for the former victory made the latter 
the more sure. But we must interpret the lat- 
ter, as the former, in the light of the freedom 
of Jesus’ will. There was another possible 
outcome than that which actually resulted. It 
was a, real conflict against real forces. Jesus 
was not yet in the actual clutch of the law. 
Only after the conflict had been waged with 
threefold vigor, and the attack of the enemy 
had been three times repelled, could the will 
proclaim itself supreme. After the battle had 
been fought, and the smoke thereof had rolled 
away, and the din had ceased, the sun came 
out. It shone upon a conqueror, calm, deter- 
mined, almost light-hearted in the complete- 
ness of the victory. “Arise, let us be going: 
behold, he that betrayeth me is at hand.” 2 As 
truly as at the transfiguration, the real self 


*Mark 14:41. 


* Mark 14:42. 


THE WILL OF JESUS 


211 


shone through the outer man, and one of the 
chief characteristics of the personality of Jesus 
was disclosed. 

Between these two great tests, the one at 
the beginning, the other at the end of his public 
ministry, there are many indications of the 
immovable stalwartness of Jesus' will. He 
consistently refused to modify his plans when 
he found himself in the face of opposition. 
Like an island at the entrance of some harbor, 
he remained unmoved when the strong cur- 
rents from within came surging up against his 
purpose, and also when the tide turned and 
poured itself from out the boundless deep, 
against his rock-bound determination. Of him 
was it preeminently true 

“That him nor stratagem nor art defiles 
Who consecrates himself to noble deeds/’ 1 

Because “there were certain of the scribes sit- 
ting there, and reasoning in their hearts ," 2 
Jesus was not for a moment kept from saying 
to the palsied man : “Arise, take up thy bed, and 
go unto thy house.” 3 Nor with less deliberate- 
ness did he throw himself in the face of opposi- 
tion, when he called upon the man with the 

1 Goethe, “ Iphigenia in Tauris.” 

•Mark 2:6. ‘Mark 2:11. 


212 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


withered hand to stand forth in the midst of 
the synagogue . 1 He did not flinch nor turn 
aside from going up to Jerusalem , 2 when the 
result of such a journey was so clear to his 
mind that “he took again the twelve, and 
began to tell them the things that were to hap- 
pen unto him. ,, 2 

The self-control of Jesus during his trial is 
one of the most impressive proofs of the power 
of his will. To maintain a patient silence is 
often the severest test that can be put upon a 
man. It is frequently more difficult than to 
act. In action the mind is occupied in the affair 
of the moment. In patient silence the mind is 
concentrated upon the hardship which is being 
endured. Action is the lion going about 
through the forest, seeking food to take back 
to its young. The muscles are in exercise. 
The imprisoned forces break forth. Silence is 
the lion motionless, watching over its brood, 
while its enemy, ready to spring at any moment 
when vigilance is relaxed, is prowling near. 
The will in silence is the will in perfect mas- 
tery. The uselessness of defense when the 
processes of the law were violently corrupted, 

1 Mark 3:3. * Mark 10:32. 


THE WILL OF JESUS 


213 


led Jesus to determine to submit. In the trial 
for his life Jesus broke his silence only when 
the hope possessed him that by his word he 
might arouse the sleeping consciences of those 
who questioned him . 1 No word was uttered in 
his own defense. Before the high priest, who 
asked him, “What is it which these witness 
against thee?” he “held his peace, and an- 
swered nothing .” 2 Before Pilate, who asked 
him, “Answerest thou nothing? behold how 
many things they accuse thee of, . . . Jesus 
no more answered anything; insomuch that 
Pilate marvelled.” 3 And when “they clothe 
him with purple, and plaiting a crown of 
thorns, they put it on him ,” 4 there is no 
evidence that the firm, majestic silence was 
broken. It was a “silence which spoke,” to any 
who could understand its language, of the tow- 
ering greatness of an unconquerable will. 

This will of Jesus was impregnable only 
because he was conscious of its being fortified 
and reenforced by another will, that of the 
Almighty. Sometimes that other will was not 
a reenforcement, but was in open conflict with 


‘Mark 14:62. 
•Mark 15:4* 5 * 


‘Mark 14:60,61. 
4 Mark 15: 1 7- 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


214 

his own. In such cases, he felt that he must 
make terms with it, must utterly surrender to 
it, yielding absolutely all his own conditions, 
and submitting to every condition imposed. 
Will against will is a house divided against 
itself. 

“When the fight begins within himself, 

A man ’s worth something.” 1 

Yes, but the man is not fully himself, has not 
attained the supreme worth, till that God who 
“stoops o’er his head” 1 has prevailed in the 
fight. The supremacy of that will which was 
greater than his own gave Jesus the sense of 
absolute sovereignty over himself. We read 
that after the baptism, “the Spirit driveth him 
forth into the wilderness.” 2 After he with his 
disciples had fulfilled his first mission in Ca- 
pernaum, “he saith unto them, Let us go else- 
where into the next towns, that I may preach 
there also; for to this end came I forth.” 8 
The sense of a great power above him and 
working through him was conspicuous every- 
where in his teaching. He was the ambassa- 
dor with power plenipotentiary. “Whosoever 

1 Browning, “ Bishop Blougram’s Apology.” 

* Mark 1:12. * Mark 1 : 38. 


THE WILL OF JESUS 


215 


receiveth me,” he said, “receiveth not me, but 
him that sent me .” 1 Gethsemane is the final 
proof of how distinctly he perceived and how 
courageously he obeyed the will which some- 
times became his own only after he had made 
it his through struggle: “Remove this cup 
from me: howbeit not what I will, but what 
thou wilt.” 2 When through struggle he had 
reconciled himself with that will and appropri- 
ated that power he could calmly say: “Arise, 
let us be going .” 3 

Stately, imposing, colossal is the personality 
of that man whose strong human will is 
made stronger through being conquered by the 
Strongest; who goes calmly on into the face 
of insuperable difficulties, and asserts himself 
with supreme majesty by his willingness to be 
defeated in his great purpose. 

1 Mark 9:37. *Mark 14:36. * Mark 14:42. 





JESUS UNDER FAILURE 















































































XVI 


JESUS UNDER FAILURE 

No life is strong unless it is fortified to 
endure the siege of failure. The over-confi- 
dence of continued success must be tempered 
by the discipline of defeat. Enthusiasm, light- 
heartedness, nonchalance may be characteristic 
of that personality which has met no rebuffs. 
Solidity and sublimity come only to those who 
have been obliged to confess failure, and mar- 
shal their forces in the midst of the bugle-calls 
of retreat. Some of the greatest soldiers have 
had their grandest moments when they were 
being overpowered. 

“When is man strong until he feels alone?” 1 
There was something splendid for France even 
in Waterloo, and that thing of splendor was 
the ability of the Guard to face overwhelming 
defeat with fortitude, and to die. To surren- 
der a moral purpose is weak. To fail in carry- 
ing a moral purpose through is often sublime. 
To be heroic in such a defeat and to die for the 
sake of the purpose is the summit of human 
heroism. 

1 Browning, “ Colombe’s Birthday.” 

219 


220 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Traits of character which have otherwise 
had no opportunity to reveal themselves come 
forth at the call of failure. Latent powers 
become apparent. Unknown capacities leap 
from their hiding-places. “The pupil [of the 
eye] is dilated at night, and eventually finds 
daylight in it, in the same way as the soul is 
dilated in misfortune and eventually finds God 
in it .” 1 The highest and sublimest elements of 
personality are brought forth out of the secret 
places of the man when he finds himself in the 
midst of the deep, dark, inexplicable realities 
of life. 

“O life, O death, O world, O time, 

O grave, where all things flow, 

Tis yours to make our lot sublime 
With your great weight of woe.” 

Jesus' life was in many respects a failure. 
That failure was emphasized by the brevity of 
his public career. He found himself in opposi- 
tion to forces so strong that they soon con- 
quered him. He realized this failure. It some- 
times weighed heavily upon him.' He found it 
necessary to shape his conduct with this in view. 
Under no other circumstances do the heroism 

1 Hugo, “ Les Miserables.” 8 Archbishop Trench. 

* Mark 12 : 7, 8. 


JESUS UNDER FAILURE 


221 


and the sublimity of his life come out more 
conspicuously. The power of his will was not 
crushed under defeat. It rose to a higher 
grandeur. He proved the real master of him- 
self in his defeats, as he never could have done 
through unbroken success. 

There was a time when Jesus was popular. 
The multitudes came pouring out to see him 
and to hear him. They sometimes followed him 
far away from their homes . 1 Yet this apparent 
success was more than outweighed in his own 
thought by his inability to inspire belief. The 
first was intended to be only a means to the 
second, and because it did not lead to the sec- 
ond, it only served by its success to accentuate 
the real failure. Like the man of spirit that he 
was, he did not hesitate to denounce those who 
failed to respond to the touch of his presence 
and the charm of his personality. His submis- 
sion to failure was not a mere yielding. He 
uttered his protest, and went down only after 
the last effort had been made. So we read that 
he began “to upbraid the cities wherein most 
of his mighty works were done, because they 
repented not.” 8 Against those individuals and 
1 Mark 6: 33. * Matthew 11 : 20. 


222 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


classes in society that had been the chief instru- 
ments in bringing about his failure, he hurled 
the weapons of his defiance and warning, as if 
making the last stand before he perished: 
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites! ... Woe unto you, ye blind guides! 

. . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! ” 1 His courage was not depend- 
ent upon success. Quite the reverse, for cour- 
age came with danger, and he was never 
grander than in his defeats. 

There was an unmistakable tone of disap- 
pointment in his voice when, after healing the 
ten lepers, and receiving the gratitude of one 
only who turned back, and he a Samaritan, 
Jesus said, “Were not the ten cleansed? but 
where are the nine? Were there none found 
that returned to give glory to God, save 
this stranger? ” 2 With high enthusiasm, deep 
emotion and large hopes, went Jesus back to 
his old home in Nazareth. But the pathos of 
failure settled upon him, when he tried to 
serve his people there, for he found that “he 
could there do no mighty work, save that he 
laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed 

1 Matthew 23: 13, 16, 23. * Luke 17: 17, 18. 


JESUS UNDER FAILURE 2 23 

them. And he marvelled because of their un- 
belief.” 1 * With what sinkings of heart and 
sense of loss must he have looked after that 
one of whom it is written, that “J esus look- 
ing upon him loved him,” when he saw the 
man go away sorrowful, unconvinced that the 
one thing lacking was necessary ! 3 

The infidelity and inability of his disciples 
Jesus must also have counted among his fail- 
ures. To attach them with unquestionable 
loyalty to him was his dear ambition. To 
make them able to do his works with him and 
for him was one of his most eager hopes. Yet 
when he came down from the mount of trans- 
figuration, the sight which met him was the 
sight of his disciples’ pitiable inability . 3 At 
the very end, after he had spent himself in the 
effort to write his name upon their hearts in 
the letters of life’s most precious endearments, 
and to bring them to an unflinching confidence, 
he had to say to them, “All ye shall be 
offended: for it is written, I will smite the 
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered 
abroad.” 4 In those moments in Gethsemane 


1 Mark 6: 5 , 6. 

• Mark 9: 14, 18. 


’Mark 10:21,22. 
* Mark 14: 27. 


224 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


when human friendship assumed its highest 
importance, and the vigilance of sympathy was 
most needed, “he cometh, and findeth them 
sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest 
thou? couldest thou not watch one hour ?” 1 
The most tragic and most painful evidence of 
failure must have come from him like a deep- 
wrought sigh in that fateful sentence, “One of 
you shall betray me.” 2 

Around the pitiableness and pathos of his 
own failures, however, Jesus never allowed 
his thoughts to gather. He saw needs yet 
greater than his own, and sorrows more de- 
plorable than any which had come to him. 
Those who tried to commiserate him met with 
a cold response . 8 For then it was that his will 
asserted itself in its clear supremacy. Away 
from himself he turned his thought with un- 
flinching courage and persistence. The dread 
of that approaching death which was to seal 
his failure was almost forgotten in hope for his 
disciples. That final catastrophe was itself to 
be turned to their highest advantage. “As 
they were eating, he took bread, and when he 
had blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, 
‘Mark 14:37. ’Mark 14:18. • Luke 23: 27, 28. 


JESUS UNDER FAILURE 225 

and said, Take ye: this is my body. And he 
took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he 
gave to them : and they all drank of it. And 
he said unto them, This is my blood of the cov- 
enant, which is shed for many. ,, 1 On the cross 
itself his thought was directed to one who was 
suffering beside him.* 

This unflinching courage of a victorious 
will, this unselfish attention to others in the 
time of his own defeats and losses, had its 
origin in his unfailing confidence in the truth, 
and in the essential value and permanence of 
his work. Nothing done in God's name could 
be lost. The truth can never long remain 
buried under the mass of falsehood. “Truth 
crushed to earth shall rise again." Artifice, 
convention, formalism, and hypocrisy must 
ultimately perish when brought into conflict 
with reality. These eternal facts fortified 
Jesus' will. In a word, it was his faith in 
God. His mission was to speak for God, face 
difficulties, disaster, defeat, if necessary, and 
leave the outcome in God’s hands. Therefore 
when the Gerasenes among whom he had done 
a good deed, “began to beseech him to depart 

1 Mark 14:22-24. ‘Luke 23:43. 


226 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


from their borders /' 1 he yielded, though it was 
a confession of failure, but said to the one man 
who was faithful to him, “Go to thy house unto 
thy friends, and tell them how great things the 
Lord hath done for thee, and how he had 
mercy on thee." 1 When he made the startling 
disclosure to his disciples that he must suffer, 
he took care to say to them : “Verily I say unto 
you, There be some here of them that stand by, 
which shall in no wise taste of death, till they 
see the kingdom of God come with power." 2 
That triumphant assertion of the will in Geth- 
semane, when he at last said to his disciples, 
“Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is 
enough ; the hour is come," 3 has in it the tone 
of a man who had done his best, and must now 
leave the issue in the hands of God. This cour- 
age of the truth, and confidence in its ultimate 
victory, which lay behind Jesus' ability to rise 
above defeat is nowhere more clearly seen than 
in that calm, far-seeing, triumphant word, 
“Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my 
words shall not pass away." 4 
This deep, secure philosophy of life, which 


1 Mark 5: 17, 19. 

* Mark 14: 41. 


2 Mark 9: 1. 

4 Mark 13: 31. 


JESUS UNDER FAILURE 227 

gave to Jesus a calm face, a triumphant bear- 
ing, an unagitated mind, and an unconquered 
cheer, found their expression in the concluding 
words of the parable of the tares among 
the wheat : “Let both grow together until the 
harvest : and in the time of the harvest I will 
say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, 
and bind them in bundles to burn them: but 
gather the wheat into my bam.” 1 And when 
this philosophy of life was translated into the 
terms of his own relation to the world, its 
meaning was the same though its language 
was the language of the individual soul : “The 
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many.” 3 

The will of Jesus under failure was supreme. 
The personality of Jesus in his defeats was not 
that of a crushed, a ruined and a discouraged 
man. It was that of the hero who understands 
how to die with cheer in his face, erectness in 
his stature, and faith in his soul. 


Matthew 13:30* 


*Mark 10:45. 


I 




JESUS IN SUCCESS 
































XVII 

JESUS IN SUCCESS 

Though the life of Jesus was filled with 
defeats, and closed in a colossal failure, he was 
not ignorant of the meaning of success in the 
sense in which the world speaks of success. The 
deeper aspects of success we have reserved for 
the chapter upon “The Joys of Jesus.” We are 
now dealing with success only in its shallower 
forms and meanings. Behind the clouds which 
hung black and ominous over his career, the 
stars were shining, though only he could see 
them. Yet even those clouds themselves were 
sometimes touched by a ruddy light, as of a 
morning glow, which had in it promise of a 
bright day. It was a disappointing promise, as 
the red at morning always is, for it brought 
after it only the darker and stormier day. 
This was not because Jesus spurned success, 
preferring to live in the darkness rather than 
in the light. It was because the successes 
which he might have attained were not lighted 
by the rays of God's approval. To walk in the 
darkness and be sure that the stars, though 
invisible, were shining, was better than to walk 
231 


232 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


in the glare of any artificial light. So the 
bright morning glow of the triumphant entry 
into Jerusalem, which seemed to promise a day 
of days , 1 soon faded into the darkness of those 
thickest of all clouds out of which the cry, 
“Crucify him, crucify him,” 2 was heard. 

His subordination of success explains many 
events in the life of Jesus. Whatever power he 
gained over men, whatever charm his personal- 
ity exerted, whatever popularity he attained, he 
used for a deeper purpose. Success, in the 
sense in which we now use the word, was never 
an end. It was always a means. He succeeded 
in his call to the fishermen by the lake. They 
felt the power of his attraction, and it was 
greater than that of their business and their 
father. They left their nets and followed him. 
But when he called them, he had a deeper pur- 
pose than to increase his personal following. 
His motive was higher than the momentary 
delight of influencing men even so mightily. 
He had the far-off purpose of making them 
useful men. For he said unto them, “Come ye 
after me, and I will make you to become fishers 
of men.” 8 

1 Mark 11:9,10. ’Mark 15:13, 14. ’Mark 1:17. 


JESUS IN SUCCESS 


233 


Jesus never trimmed the sails of his teaching 
for the sake of gaining or maintaining popu- 
larity. He followed the course of his thought 
and his duty. These were primary; popularity 
was secondary. In laying out his course for 
the “Paradiso,” Dante says : 

“O ye, who in some pretty little boat, 

Eager to listen, have been following 
Behind my ship, that singing sails along, 

Turn back to look again upon your shores; 

Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure, 

In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.” 1 

Jesus in his teaching did not encourage the 
shallow curiosity of those who came to him, 
drawn by his wonderful deeds. On the other 
hand, his words were so serious, often so repel- 
lent and always so bold, that no “pretty little 
boat” of curiosity could follow in the wake 
thereof. A man must launch upon such a bois- 
terous deep in the staunch craft of a serious 
and persistent purpose. For whatever reason 
the crowd gathered when “it was noised that 
he was in the house” 3 at Capernaum, the peo- 
ple soon discovered how he was to use the 
success of his popularity, for he began immedi- 
ately to speak “the word unto them.” * In 
1 Canto II. *Mark 2:1,2. 


234 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the synagogue, though there were those who 
watched “whether he would heal him on the 
sabbath day ,” 1 he said unto the man with the 
withered hand, “Stand forth.” 1 When he was 
by the seaside, where “a very great multi- 
tude ” 2 was gathered, “he taught them many 
things in parables.” 2 In every case the success 
he attained was subordinated or sacrificed for 
the deeper purpose. 

Jesus did not allow his mind to be occupied 
with his successes. In the midst of his suc- 
cesses he sent his thought out from himself to 
others. This is so obvious as to need only a 
word of illustration. When the crowd fol- 
lowed him out to a desert place and remained 
with him until the day was far spent, his word 
to his disciples was, “Give ye them to eat.” 3 
In the midst of those emotions into which we 
can only let our imaginations look from afar 
off, for we cannot follow, after he had raised 
the little daughter of Jairus, those friends who 
were amazed “with a great amazement ,” 4 
heard him say that “something should be given 
her to eat .” 4 Amd after the disciples had 

1 Mark 3: 2, 3. 3 Mark 4: 1, 2. 8 Mark 6: 37. 

4 Mark 5: 42, 43. 


JESUS IN SUCCESS 


235 


made the confession, “Thou art the Christ ,” 1 
he began to say to them and the multitude, 
“If any man would come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow 
me.” * 

Along with the mighty charm and power of 
Jesus’ personality, and as a part of it, went the 
instinct of self-concealment. He would, if 
possible, hide himself behind his message and 
his work. It was this instinct which saved 
his self-assertiveness from becoming egotism. 
When he pushed himself to the front, it was 
from necessity and not from choice. However 
much he was forced to speak of himself, he 
was not a man whose self eclipsed teaching and 
service. More and more as his public life 
passed, he was obliged to bring himself into 
prominence, for his personality was insepa- 
rable from his message. In another chapter we 
shall deal with the “Self-Assertion of Jesus,” 
but all such self-assertions involved the laying 
aside of the preference for self-concealment, of 
the reserve and modesty of his nature. The 
blind man of Bethsaida was led out of the vil- 
lage before the hands of Jesus were laid upon 
1 Mark 8:29. * Mark 8:34. 


236 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


his eyes; and after his sight was restored so 
that he “saw all things clearly,” he was sent 
away to his home, with the command, “Do not 
even enter into the village.” 1 This was not 
the only case in which the blind were treated 
in this way . 3 That leper who came with the 
faith, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me 
clean,” was strictly charged, “See thou say 
nothing to any man.” 8 Those insane people 
whose instinct recognized in him something 
more than was seen by the average observer, 
were not allowed to speak, “because they knew 
him.” 4 When they hailed him as “the Son 
of God,” he imposed silence upon them . 5 
When he went upon a journey into the bor- 
ders of Tyre and Sidon, his intention, though 
thwarted, was that no man should know it , 8 
and when he restored the daughter of Jairus 
to her father, he made the special request that 
those who had seen the wonderful deed should 
not let others know of it . 7 Upon the disciples 
themselves Jesus imposed the same condition. 
The knowledge which they gained of his char- 

1 Mark 8:25, 26. 3 Matthew 9:30. 

8 Mark 1 : 40, 43, 44. 4 Mark 1 : 34. 

8 Mark 3: 11, 12. 8 Mark 7: 24. 

7 Mark 5:43. 


JESUS IN SUCCESS 


237 


acter and his greatness, they were not to 
divulge. They were to hold such facts as hid- 
den treasures in their memories, until such 
time as it became necessary to bring them 
forth. After the great confession of Peter at 
Caesarea Philippi, “he charged them that they 
should tell no man of him ,” 1 and of those 
things which they had seen upon the mount of 
transfiguration they were not to speak, “save 
when the Son of man should have risen again 
from the dead .” 3 

This reserve of Jesus may have been made 
necessary by the conditions which were outside 
him. It may have been prompted by the need 
of postponing that final catastrophe which a 
direct and open claim of the Messiahship would 
have precipitated. It may have been expedient 
to wait until the disciples were more thoroughly 
matured in the Christian life. But there must 
also be a reason deeper than these. Jesus was 
never false to himself; he never acted a part. 
What he did was a genuine expression of what 
he was. He lived a real life. If, during the 
first months of his public ministry, he showed 
reserve, it was because there was a correspond- 
*Mark 8:30. 2 Mark 9:9. 


238 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ing reality in his personality. It was the 
expression of himself. All the attempts which 
he made to conceal the results of his power, 
were but the appearing of an element of his 
nature. They were prompted by the instinct 
of self-concealment. Then when at last he 
came forward with his mighty claims, and 
asserted himself before all men as the expected 
Messiah, he made a sacrifice of his own desire 
for reserve and concealment because he felt 
that only by such sacrifice could the will of his 
Father be accomplished. The effect of the 
Gospel stories is to make us feel that the first 
and instinctive action of Jesus was to hide him- 
self, that his nature was one of reserve and 
modesty, and that the pushing forward of him- 
self in the later ministry was the effort of the 
“meek and lowly” man to perform a majestic 
and supreme duty which was imposed upon 
him by the will of the Almighty. 

Thus in the subordination of success was 
involved the subordination of himself. That 
precept which he gave to his disciples was one 
which had been learned by him in no other 
school than in the stern, real school of personal 
experience, and wrought out of his struggle 


JESUS IN SUCCESS 


239 


with the world as one of the products of his 
life. He had lived it ; it was a part of himself ; 
therefore it was vital in his teaching: “Who- 
soever shall humble himself shall be exalted. ,, 1 

1 Matthew 23: 12. 













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THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS’ WILL 






































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XVIII 

THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS’ WILL 

When we come to study the effect of Jesus’ 
will upon others, we must stop to remember 
that we are looking at this man from the point 
of view of personality ; otherwise we should be 
led away from our simple purpose. Such a 
study opens many problems. We travel a 
mountain path out of which lead other paths 
which open attractive views, alluring vistas, 
inviting byways. But we must keep to the 
main road of our study. It is not in our pur- 
pose to delve into the deep mysteries of the 
meaning of miracles and their relation to the 
course of nature. We shall not undertake to 
defend them. Certain facts are related in 
the Gospels. We take those facts as they 
stand. Behind them we see a person moving. 
Through those facts, therefore, we try to see 
that person. We are studying not miracles but 
a man. We are applying ourselves not to a 
problem but to a personality. This fact of 
personality, we may remind ourselves, is the 
243 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


244 

ultimate reality in the universe. Whether in 
God or in man, personality is the highest fact. 
Behind nature, which reveals God, and behind 
activity, which reveals man, lies the fact of 
personality. 

There was, therefore, something in Jesus 
which corresponded tO' and was the origin of 
his deeds. His acts of healing cannot be made 
an exception to this statement. They tell of 
something in him. They are expressions of a 
reality of his nature. There was something 
within which made possible the facts which 
appeared to those who were without. That 
inward thing must possess a power sufficient to 
produce the effects. There must lie in Jesus’ 
personality an adequate cause. The activity of 
a man is only the measure of the power of the 
man ; and such a measure is never greater than 
the thing measured. We are not estimating 
Jesus correctly unless we perceive in some ele- 
ment of his personality, or in all elements com- 
bined, the cause which produced the wonderful 
works. Again must we warn ourselves against 
supposing that any account of the healing 
power of Jesus which we can give from this 
point of view is a complete account. Jesus was 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS’ WILL 245 


not a mere healer in the usual sense. His mo- 
tive was religious. The sources of his power 
lay so far back in his strange relation to God 
that we cannot penetrate to them. We can 
only examine that portion which conies within 
our range of observation. We can deal with 
the subject only in a fragmentary manner, con- 
scious all the while of unseen forces and unin- 
terpreted meanings. 

When we search for that element in the per- 
sonality of Jesus which exercised so great 
authority over men, and which so effectively 
operated for the cure of disease, we find it 
largely in his will. In this case, as in all cases, 
we cannot make any such sharp distinctions 
between the different elements of personality 
as to cut one off from all the rest. Personality 
is always a living and a total fact. In the heal- 
ing activity of Jesus, therefore, we cannot omit 
the influence of the mind of Jesus as it worked 
to understand causes and to comprehend men. 
We cannot eliminate the sympathy of Jesus as 
it operated to draw men to him and increase 
their confidence in him. Mind and heart con- 
tributed to produce the great results. Yet the 
chief factor in that portion of the mighty 


246 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


power which comes within our observation 
was the will of Jesus. There was an authority 
in that will. Its supremacy was recognized. 
Its royal dignity and right made the wills of 
others bow before it. It was as the sheaf in 
Joseph’s dream. It had such potency that it 
assumed royal prerogatives. Its power was 
such that it created faith. When it was itself 
reenforced by the faith which it had created 
it became almost omnipotent. 

Yet the will of Jesus in the midst of its 
splendid authority never became coercive. It 
recognized, as in fact it was obliged to recog- 
nize, the freedom of all other wills. It was 
kingly but not tyrannical. It never rode 
roughshod over the convictions or consciences 
of others. Willingness to be helped by it was 
the condition of receiving help from it. Active 
desire to receive its assistance was the usual 
accompaniment of its exercise. Even when 
the traders were driven from the temple court , 1 
the contest was not simply that of one man’s 
will against the wills of many men. It was one 
man’s will, strengthened by the knowledge of 
the many that they were in the wrong, opposed 


1 Mark 11: 15. 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS ’ WILL 247 


to the wills of the many. There were occa- 
sions when Jesus would have exercised the 
majesty of his will, but could not, for to do so 
would have been to resort to coercive methods. 
Lack of faith prevented him from doing many 
things which he would otherwise have done. 
In no place was he more eager to bring people 
under the influence of this power, so that he 
could help them, than in Nazareth. Childhood 
had woven about it a veil of sentiment through 
which it seemed the more beautiful. The 
friends of his youth and young manhood were 
there. To the love of man as man was added 
the love of personal attachment. Jesus went 
back to his old home in hope of doing some of 
his mightiest deeds there. But he found him- 
self “among his own kin, and in his own 
house ” 1 almost helpless. Those who had 
known him as a child and young man were 
utterly incredulous. They had no faith in him. 
The reports which they had heard of his work 
in other towns were discounted by their own 
familiarity with his early years. “He could 
there do no mighty work, save that he laid his 
hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 

*Mark 6: 4-6. 


248 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


And he marvelled because of their unbelief.” 1 
The importance which Jesus attached to faith 
in the power of his will before that will could 
work its full results is seen in his word to the 
man who brought his insane son to the disci- 
ples to be cured. There was a lingering doubt 
in the man’s mind of Jesus’ ability to effect the 
cure. That doubt was expressed in the words, 
“If thou canst do anything.” 2 Jesus felt that 
he must remove all such opposing doubt. He 
assured the man before he undertook to effect 
the cure, “All things are possible to him that 
believeth.” 2 

Such belief in his power, and such willing- 
ness to be influenced by it, Jesus could never 
have created except as that power and influence 
were exercised beneficently. If such authority 
of will could be conceived apart from interest 
in men’s welfare and love for their persons, it 
would be the most destructive force that could 
be introduced into the world. It would be- 
come simply a thing to be dreaded. People 
recognized in Jesus’ personality not only a 
mighty will toward men, but also such a char- 
acter as made it a “good will” toward men. 

1 Mark 6: 5, 6. 2 Mark 9: 22, 23. 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS’ WILL 249 

The authority of Jesus’ will was often 
strong to influence the conduct and life of oth- 
ers. “Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he 
saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon 
casting a net in the sea : for they were fishers. 
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, 
and I will make you to become fishers of men. 
And straightway they left the nets, and fol- 
lowed him. And going on a little further, he 
saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his 
brother, who also were in the boat mending 
the nets. And straightway he called them: 
and they left their father Zebedee in the boat 
with the hired servants, and went after him .” 1 
At another time Levi the publican “arose and 
followed him” in response to his call . 3 The 
power of his will was exercised to support the 
discouraged Ja'irus, as they were making their 
way to the house where the daughter was. 
For some came to him saying, “Thy daughter 
is dead. . . . But Jesus, not heeding the word 
spoken, saith . . . Fear not, only believe.” * 
In quite another way did that same authority 
reveal itself in the temple, when the traders 

1 Mark 1: 16-20. 2 Mark 2: 14. 

•Mark 5 : 35 , 36 . 


250 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


were driven from its courts , 1 yet with effects as 
great in their own way. 

In the thought of Jesus the relation between 
sin and disease was so intimate that he felt that 
he could not properly fulfil his moral mission 
in the world without exercising the authority 
of his will over those who were suffering from 
disease. The ministry of Jesus to the soul and 
his ministry to the body are so closely inter- 
woven as to be practically one. His mission 
was a life-bringing mission. But the life of 
the soul has its bearing upon the life of the 
body, and the life of the body has its bearing 
upon the life of the soul. He therefore spent 
much time and poured out vast energy in the 
healing of diseases. Wherever he went 

“Some novel power 
Sprang up forever at a touch.” 2 

The healing ministry of Jesus throws light 
upon the physical aspects of the personality of 
Jesus. In him was abundant life. That will 
which showed itself in the healing of the sick 
was built upon the physical foundations of an 
unexhausted vigor. It was fortified by over- 
flowing health. Upon the paralysis of weak- 

1 Mark 11:15. 2 Tennyson, “In Memoriam.” 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS ’ WILL 251 


ened natures he brought to bear a force of will 
which was all the more effective because of 
the physical vigor which reenforced it. We 
must think of Jesus as a man of vast physical 
resources, of almost tireless activity, and al- 
most exhaustless vitality. 

In a majority of the cases in which Jesus 
effected cures, there was some touch. Person- 
ality often best expresses itself, and makes 
itself appreciated in all the measure of its 
greatness, through the thrill of the hand-touch. 
The first impulse of the true giver of sympathy 
is to place the hand upon the one to whom the 
sympathy is given. This contact was not the 
means of effecting cures. It was only the 
method of expressing that sympathy which 
words cannot express, and of gaining the unre- 
served confidence of the person to be healed. 
The blind mail of Bethsaida required the repe- 
tition of the process before he was perfectly 
recovered. The first touch was not enough. 
Jesus must the second time lay his hands upon 
his eyes. Then, when he looked steadfastly, he 
“saw all things clearly.” 1 The two blind men, 
however, felt the wonder-working power at 


*Mark 8:25. 


252 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the first contact, perfecting their recovery . 1 
The woman whose spirit of infirmity had been 
upon her eighteen years, felt his hands laid 
upon her, “and immediately she was made 
straight .’ 1 2 Jesus touched both the ears and 
the tongue of that man from the borders of 
Decapolis, who was deaf and had an impedi- 
ment in his speech . 3 The touching of the leper 
is a matter of special significance, both from 
the nature of the disease and from the fact that 
Jesus, as he touched him, made a distinct asser- 
tion of his will : “I will; be thou made clean.” 4 
In Nazareth there was a close relation between 
the touch of Jesus and the healing of disease, 
for we are told that “he laid his hands upon a 
few sick folk, and healed them.” 5 When he 
was making his tour among the villages and 
cities and through the country, “as many as 
touched him were made whole.” 9 

This touch sometimes took the definite form 
of a hand-grasp. During the process of the 
deliverance of the deaf and dumb boy from the 
toils of his infirmity, Jesus “took him by the 
hand, and raised him up.” 7 The same method 

1 Matthew 9: 29, 30. 2 Luke 13:13. ‘Mark 7:33. 

* Mark 1: 41. 5 Mark 6:5. 8 Mark 6: 56. 

T Mark 9* 27. 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS ’ WILL 253 

was adopted in the cure of Simon’s wife’s 
mother . 1 And in one of the greatest of all the 
great works which are recorded, the raising of 
Jairus’ daughter, he took “the child by the 
hand.” 2 

The record of some of the cures which Jesus 
effected is so incomplete that it is impossible 
to describe the method. We are not able to 
make any definite statement. There may have 
been contact with the afflicted persons; there 
may have been no contact. About such an 
event in the early ministry of Jesus in Caper- 
naum, we are simply told, “And he healed 
many that were sick with divers diseases, and 
cast out many demons.” 3 All that we are told 
of the cure of the blind and dumb man is that 
“he healed him, insomuch that the dumb man 
spake and saw.” 4 

There is another class of cures, the records 
of which, when interpreted naturally, seem to 
imply that there was no touch. In many of 
these cases, circumstances prevented personal 
contact. They are numerous enough and suf- 
ficiently authenticated to convince us that 


1 Mark 1:31. 
* Mark 1 : 34. 


2 Mark 5: 41. 

4 Matthew 12:22. 


254 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


while Jesus preferred to place his hand upon 
the person whom he cured, he was not depend- 
ent upon that method. The man with the 
unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum 
was cured by the simple word of command, 
so that the people in their amazement said, 
“With authority he commandeth even the 
unclean spirits, and they obey him. ,, 1 At an- 
other time in one of the synagogues a man 
with a withered hand w r as cured in the act of 
obedience to the word, “Stretch forth thy 
hand.” * There is no evidence that Jesus 
touched the palsied man in the house in Caper- 
naum , 3 or the insane man in the country of 
the Gerasenes . 4 The ten lepers seem to have 
been cleansed without contact , 5 nor is there any 
mention of a touch in the story of the opening 
of the eyes of the blind man of Jericho . 0 

In a great majority of cases in which circum- 
stances allowed it, Jesus touched the persons 
over whose wills he exercised the authority of 
his own. Yet he was not limited by the neces- 
sity of doing so. His touch seems to have 
been the expression of the instinct of his sym- 

1 Mark i : 25, 27. 1 2 Mark 3:5. * Mark 2: 10, 11. 

4 Mark 5:8. 6 Luke 17:14. 6 Mark 10:52. 


THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS’ WILL 255 


pathy rather than the method of his work. A 
man who sees a helpless child upon the street, 
to whom he longs to give assistance, lays his 
hand upon the child’s head when he speaks to 
him in the tender tones of a great sympathy. 
The touch carries courage with it, because it is 
the unmistakable evidence of a deep desire to 
help. But the help is not in the touch; it is in 
the man behind the touch. The full power of 
an electric current is felt when steel is brought 
into contact with the wire which conducts it. 
But the magnet feels that power when it is laid 
alongside the current, and responds with all 
the evidence of a new force within itself. The 
hand touch of a great personality sends the 
thrill and the influence of the life through 
every part. But the touch is not the personal- 
ity. The force of it, the life, the vital spark, 
may be felt with creative energy when one 
hears the voice. It may even, as is once re- 
corded of Jesus , 1 be felt at a distance. That is 
the great exception. The stone or the log can- 
not feel it at all. But if in the life there is the 
magnetism of a living faith, or even if there is 
one who can store up and carry the new vital 
1 Mark 7: 30. 


256 WHO THEN IS THIS 

force, the majestic supremacy of life is as- 
serted. The authority of the will is recognized. 
The will within responds to the command of 
that regal will without. That this does not 
fully account for the healing power of Jesus, 
the Gospels give their evidence, and every in- 
stinct in us rises up to assert. For the Gospels 
contain more than this explains, and life con- 
tains more than the Gospels can convey. Some 
of the cures of which we have taken notice may 
be adequately accounted for thus; many of 
them cannot be. The power which Jesus 
derived from his purity of life, and from his 
religious faith, we can neither measure nor 
define. Even if there were in Jesus nothing 
more than the supreme excellence of human 
personality, his power over disease we are not 
in a position to understand. We can neither 
deny the fact nor explain the method. That 
the personality of Jesus was rich enough to 
compass these results we believe. And in 
making our estimate of the man who is 
brought to view in the Gospels, we must 
reckon with this majestic authority of Jesus' 
will. 


THE JOY OF JESUS 










































XIX 

THE JOY OF JESUS 

We look at the clouds which come rolling 
up out of the west of a summer evening just 
at that moment when the sun is setting. They 
are black and ominous. They pronounce the 
threat of the coming storm. Then the sun’s 
rays slant through them, and shine in between 
them. Alongside the black appear the silver 
and the gold. No man can tell which is 
greater, the gloom or the glory, which indeed 
is the cloud itself ; for it takes the two together 
to make that western cloud. So is the blend- 
ing of joy and sorrow in the life of man, and 
especially in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He 
has been called the “Man of Sorrows.” That 
is only as true, and certainly as false, as any 
half truth. It would be no farther from the 
whole truth to call him the “Man of Joys.” 
To say that Jesus was a man of deep emotions 
is to say that he was both a “Man of Sorrows” 
and a “Man of Joys.” There is as much gold 
as gloom. But no man can fully understand 
259 


26 o 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


what those joys were, nor how great, until he 
reach the deeper currents of human life which 
are always tranquil. There is an interpreta- 
tion of all human experiences into the deeper 
blessedness of life. In that interpretation lies 
the full, rich, invulnerable, unruffled joy. 
That Jesus had made this interpretation is 
evident. That he had come to know 
“The far-off interest of tears ” 1 

is one of the most obvious impressions left 
upon us in reading the Gospels, We see this 
when we remember that the value and authority 
of his teaching lay in the depth of his experi- 
ence, and then go back to read the Beatitudes. 
No man who had not interpreted the western 
cloud into a sunset glory could have said : 

“ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven. 

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com- 
forted. 

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for right- 
eousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of 

heaven. 

Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and per- 
secute you, and say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake. 


1 Tennyson, “ In Memoriam.' 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


26 1 

t 

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your 
reward in heaven .” 1 

Beneath all the failures of Jesus’ life, beneath 
all its sorrows, were springs of the pure, living 
waters of joy which never failed to refresh and 
sustain him. There is a song of Sidney 
Lanier’s which carries us back into the presence 
of these deep sources. It is “A Song of Eter- 
nity in Time.” 

“Once, at night, in the manor wood 
My Love and I long silent stood, 

Amazed that any heavens could 
Decree to part us, bitterly repining. 

My Love, in aimless love and grief, 

Reached forth and drew aside a leaf 
That just above us played the thief 
And stole our starlight that for us was shining. 

A star that had remarked her pain 
Shone straightway down that leafy lane, 

And wrought his image, mirror-plain, 

Within a tear that on her lash hung gleaming. 
‘Thus Time,’ I cried, ‘is but a tear 
Some one hath wept ’twixt hope and fear, 

Yet in his little lucent sphere 
Our star of stars, Eternity, is beaming.’ ” 

A star within a tear: that is the symbol of 
the life of Jesus. But the tear was shed only 
that it might reflect the star. The star there- 
fore was the greater thing, although the tear 
contained it. 


Matthew 5 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 10, 11, 12. 


262 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


We have already made a brief study of Jesus 
in his successes. A certain measure and sort of 
joy always go along with the kind of successes 
which he achieved. He found much pleasure 
in the common, happy experiences of life. He 
was once a boy, and there is infinite suggestion 
of light-heartedness and freedom in the mere 
statement. He enjoyed the companionship of 
friends , 1 and resorted to the homes of those 
who loved him . 8 Jesus was not an ascetic as 
John the Baptist was, who came “neither eat- 
ing nor drinking.” 3 Nor, while Jesus “came 
eating and drinking,” was that charge which 
his enemies cast against him a true one, that 
he was “a gluttonous man, and a winebibber.” * 
For he took the trouble to refute it. Yet he 
was capable of the human sensations and 
thrills of joy which go with great popularity. 
This capacity is sufficiently proved by the fact 
that within it was the germ of one of the 
strongest temptations which ever assailed him , 4 
and that sometimes he had to turn his back 
upon the evidence of his popularity in order 
most effectively to do his work . 8 The joy of 

1 Mark 5: 37. 2 Mark 1: 29. 3 Matthew 11: 18, 19. 

4 Matthew 4: 8, 9. 6 Mark 1 : 37, 38. 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


263 


his successes was upon him and within him. 
It was on his face, in his bearing, an element 
in his power, when multitudes came together , 1 
when “they brought unto him all that were 
sick /' 2 when it was reported that all were seek- 
ing him/ when the multitude was gathered at 
the lake-side , 4 when the press was so great that 
“they could not so much as eat bread /’ 0 when 
“a great multitude followed him, and . . . 
thronged him.” 9 

We may, however, pass over this element in 
the joy of Jesus very hastily, aware that as 
we are thinking of it we are only touching 
the hem of the garment which enfolded him. 
When we come to a closer observation of this 
subject, we notice as a deeper element of the 
joy of Jesus, the joy of the possession of 
power. The orator knows it as he stands be- 
fore his almost breathless audience. The mas- 
terful physician knows it as he applies all the 
art of his experience in his fight with disease. 
One such, MacLure by name, knew it in one of 
the Scottish glens, at the moment which his 
friend, observing him, described : “It gar’d ma 

1 Mark 10: I. * Mark 1 : 32. s Mark 1 : 37. 

4 Mark 5:21. 8 Mark 3:20. 8 Mark 5:24. 


264 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


very blood rin faster tae the end of ma fingers 
juist tae look at him, for a’ saw noo that there 
was tae be a stand-up fecht atween him an’ 
deith for Saunders, and when a’ thocht o' Bell 
an’ her bairns, a’ kent wha wud win .” 1 Like 
the great orator, Jesus held those multitudes 
which followed him. Like the masterful physi- 
cian, Jesus battled with those diseases which 
were around him. There was victory in his 
face. There was confidence in his demeanor. 
He was never baffled nor panic-stricken by the 
greatness of the demands upon his resources. 
Even when the people “ran round about that 
whole region, and began to carry about on 
their beds those that were sick,” * or when 
“they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and 
besought him that they might touch if it were 
but the border of his garment,” * he held him- 
self with the manner of one who was aware of 
a power adequate to all demands. In the con- 
sciousness of such power, “he healed many.” 4 
In the consciousness of such power he made re- 
sponse to Jairus and “went with him,” ’ enter- 
ing into the house where, though laughed to 

1 Maclaren, “ Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush.” 

8 Mark 6: 55. ‘ Mark 6: 56. 4 Mark 1 : 34. 

‘ Mark 5 : 24. 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


265 


scorn, he calmly made his preparations to as- 
sert himself . 1 Such sense of the possession of 
power is always one of the deep joys of men. It 
rises above derision. It calmly proceeds to 
overturn all obstacles. It views the petty forces 
which oppose it, as the mountain looks down 
upon the little hills. It is calm, while resist- 
less. It is most tranquil when most active. It 
is most modest when most admired. It is al- 
ways self-respecting. It is always joyful. 

Akin to this was the joy of such confident 
knowledge of the truth as gave him a rightful 
leadership in spiritual things. He was a master 
in leading men to God. This implies a double 
joy. There was the joy of leadership, and, 
deeper still, the joy of the knowledge of truth 
itself. This leadership his disciples fully recog- 
nized. Under it they labored. He gave them 
instructions how to live and what to teach. He 
imparted to them some share of the authority 
of his power, and “began to send them forth 
by two and two.” 8 When the Seventy returned 
to him after a successful journey, although he 
warned them not to be elated over the shal- 
lower meaning of their success, he himself 
1 Mark 5:40. 2 Mark 6:7. 


266 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


shared in the joy of the deeper meaning of it . 1 
The recognition of Jesus' rightful leadership 
was once made by two of his disciples in a 
crude way, but in a way which with its crudity 
had in it such evidence of affection and desire 
for continued relations with him, that it must 
have brought deep joy with it. It was the re- 
quest of James and John, “Grant unto us that 
we may sit, one on thy right hand, and one 
on thy left hand, in thy glory.” 2 Jesus’ rebuke 
of these two men was not as the rebukes which 
he gave to Pharisees and hypocrites. It was 
tempered with tenderness, softened with affec- 
tion, changed almost into a benediction by the 
love which was behind it. They had recog- 
nized his rightful place. It gave him joy. 

Another phase of the joy of Jesus can be 
measured only as we measure his sympathy. 
It can be estimated only as we estimate the 
opportunities which he had and used to help 
and minister. The sun of true sympathy is 
able to transform any western cloud. The life 
of service is the happy life. “Happiness is the 
natural flower of duty.” 8 How far is it then 
from the whole truth to call Jesus “The Man 
1 Luke io : 17-20. * Mark 10: 37. 8 Phillips Brooks. 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


267 


of Sorrows” ! We have only to touch this 
thought, as the swift-flying swallow drops to 
touch the surface of a lake, to see how deep it 
is. How inevitable is the logic which leads 
from sympathy and ministration to joy! If 
there is such thing as proportion in happi- 
ness, the life of Jesus was a radiant life, and its 
radiance was but the hint of the deep-abiding 
glow which filled his nature. Given the simple 
premise, “He healed many that were sick,” 1 or, 
“He took” the little children “in his arms, and 
blessed them, laying his hands upon them ,” 2 
and the conclusion is all in the terms of deep 
human joy, which may even be carried over 
into such experiences as that in the midst of 
which he said, “This is my blood of the cov- 
enant, which is shed for many.” 8 

The joy of Jesus was the joy of the optimist. 
This was so profoundly and permanently a 
part of his nature that it absorbed into 1 itself 
and transformed by its wondrous touch all 
the darker experiences of life. Jesus' optimism 
was unconquerable. Therefore his joy was 
undisturbed. It was of the sort that others 
have had, who have said: 

‘Mark 1:34. 2 Mark 10:16. 8 Mark 14:24. 


268 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


‘‘I find earth not gray, but rosy, 

Heaven not grim, but fair of hue. 

Do I stoop? I pick a posy, 

Do I stand and stare? All ’s blue .” 1 

It was of this sort but greater; for the opti- 
mism of Jesus was the greatest and the fullest 
the world has ever seen. If it is judged by its 
effects upon others, we may say that “it cre- 
ates a concert in the human heart that never 
ceases, that takes up into itself the whole 
pathos of existence and blends it with the gov- 
erning voices of joy, making them softer and 
richer, making it a solace and sanctity.” 2 If it 
is judged by the words which he uttered, we 
may say that “they exhibit an inner freedom 
and a cheerfulness of soul in the midst of the 
greatest strain, such as no prophet ever pos- 
sessed before him.” 3 Whatever the present 
experience, the future was full of hope. How- 
ever great the forces which opposed him, the 
forces which were with him were greater. 
However black the discouragement, it could 
not cast its shadow over the light which was 
within. However deep the suffering of body or 
of spirit, it could not conquer faith. The say- 

1 Browning. * Gordon, “ Ultimate Conceptions of 
Faith.” 8 Harnack, “ What is Christianity?” 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


269 


ings of Jesus are wholly pervaded by this 
unconquerable optimism. Even the ultimate 
catastrophe was not to be so great as to destroy 
his truth : “Heaven and earth shall pass away : 
but my words shall not pass away.” 1 

There is a splendid illustration of the opti- 
mism of Jesus in the parable of the mustard 
seed. Small as that seed was the kingdom 
which he was establishing, but it was to become 
“greater than all the herbs, and putteth out 
great branches ; so that the birds of the heaven 
can lodge under the shadow thereof.” 2 When 
he began to teach his disciples “that the Son of 
man must suffer many things,” * and to say to 
the multitude, “If any man would come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow me,” 8 he finished his words by say- 
ing, “There be some here of them that stand by, 
which shall in no wise taste of death, till they 
see the kingdom of God come with power .” 4 
Before his Church had passed its natal hour, 
he calmly predicted that the gates of Hades 
should not prevail against it . 8 Looking on to 
the dread hour when he should be delivered up 

1 Mark 13:31. 1 Mark 4:32. * Mark 8:31,34. 

‘Mark 9: 1. 6 Matthew 16: 18. 


270 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


to death, he repeatedly asserted that after three 
days he should rise again . 1 Looking yet far- 
ther on into the seemingly fatal events which 
were lowering, his unconquerable hopefulness 
shed light even there : “Then shall they see the 
Son of man coming in clouds with great power 
and glory.” 2 

All the joy of this optimism had its rise 
from a good conscience, and from the sense of 
a mission clearly perceived and faithfully per- 
formed. The fountain of all this living water 
was within. From beginning to ending he 
could 

“See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, 

With joy and love triumphing,” 3 

because he made his Father’s purpose his own 
purpose. There was no dividing of the waters 
from the waters within him. But deep answered 
unto deep. His whole nature approved. His 
purpose formed, there was no hesitation to 
bend all energy to its accomplishment. The 
great voices of the past, as the figures of Moses 
and Elijah appeared to him at the transfigu- 
ration, gave their assent . 4 The voice from 

1 Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34. 2 Mark 13:26. 

* Milton, “Paradise Lost.” i Mark 9:4. 


THE JOY OF JESUS 


271 


heaven, which is always the supreme tribunal, 
was on his side at moments of great impor- 
tance , 1 and doubtless at all moments as well. 
Even hostile men, when they tried to accuse 
him of evil, “sought witness against Jesus to 
put him to death; and found it not .” 3 And 
when he was misunderstood by those about 
him he could always fall back upon his full 
understanding of God, and God’s complete 
approval of him, and say, “No one knoweth 
the Son, save the Father; neither doth any 
know the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.”' 

Such a man had the rich experience of joy 
in such breadth and in such depth as others 
can share only in part. 

‘Mark x: 11; 9: 7 - ’Mark 14 * 55 * ‘Matthew 11:27 








JESUS AS A FRIEND 




> 


XX 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 

In the mind of Jesus friendship assumed 
high meanings. The relations into which he 
entered with those who came near him were 
profound and real. They were never profes- 
sional in their character, either as a man may 
cultivate acquaintance that he may profit there- 
by, or as a man may heartlessly search out the 
poor whom his conscience drives him to help. 
The friendships of Jesus were natural. They 
were the results of mutual needs. They were 
the inevitable outcome of a loving nature. 
While he used his friendships as opportunities 
of rich and abundant helpfulness, he also felt, 

“ How dear the counsel of a present friend, 

Lacking whose god-like power, the lonely one 
In silence droops !” 1 

While he entered into this deep, natural rela- 
tion with men and women of all sorts and con- 
ditions, he at one time clearly stated the condi- 
tion upon which alone it was possible to enter 
into the closest and most vital relation with 

1 Goethe, “ Iphigenia in Tauris.” 

275 


2 76 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


him. It was when his family came to seek him, 
while the multitude was sitting about. In 
answer to the suggestion that they were seek- 
ing him, he said, “Who is my mother and my 
brethren? ... For whosoever shall do the 
will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, 
and mother.” 1 

Notice the extent of Jesus’ friendships. 
Three men held the place next to his heart. 
By the natural process of affinity and selection 
they became his intimates. He depended upon 
them in trying times. He shared with them his 
highest triumphs. They went to sustain him 
when he was about to perform one of his great- 
est works . 2 They were with him when he 
entered into his highest joy . 3 He took them to 
guard him, that he might feel the courage of 
human sympathy, in the hour of his greatest 
grief . 4 Beyond this little group of men, and in- 
cluding it, as the larger circle must include the 
smaller, was that body of men, twelve in num- 
ber, whom he chose from among his followers 
to be his companions. They were with him 
during the greater part of his ministry. They 
enjoyed his confidences, and entered, so far as 
1 Mark 3: 33, 35. * Mark 5: 37. 9 Mark 9:2.“ Mark 14:33. 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 


2 77 


they were able, into his thoughts and plans. 
They were more to him than disciples, as he 
was more to them than a teacher. Their 
relation was deeper than that between instruc- 
tor and students ; they were friends ; they were 
companions. Jesus chose them, we are told, 
not simply “that he might send them forth to 
preach, and to have authority to cast out de- 
mons, but also “that they might be with him .” 1 

The friendly disposition of Jesus finds beauti- 
ful illustration in his words to Zacchaeus: “To- 
day I must abide at thy house; ” 2 in his rela- 
tion with the Pharisee, who asked him to dine 
with him , 3 and to the ruler of the Pharisees, 
who took him to his house on a sabbath to eat 
bread . 4 The largeness of this friendly disposi- 
tion and the broad results of it are seen in the 
fact that “it came to pass, that he was sitting 
at meat in his house [or, at home] and many 
publicans and sinners sat down with Jesus and 
his disciples : for there were many, and they 
followed him.” 8 Moreover the house of Mary 
and Martha was opened to him, when “he en- 
tered into a certain village,” 8 and when the lit- 

1 Mark 3:14. ‘Luke 19:5. ‘Luke 11 : 37- 

4 Luke 14:1. 'Mark 2:15. 'Luke 10:38. 


2 7 8 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


tie band of friends went about from village to 
village there were “certain women which had 
been healed of evil spirits and infirmities . . . 
and many others, which ministered unto them 
of their substance.” 1 In every place to which 
his healing ministry reached, Jesus left in de- 
voted hearts the evidence of his kindness and 
friendliness. Jesus had many friends unknown 
to us by name. Among them were those who 
at the request of Jesus willingly released the 
colt for which the disciples were sent into the 
neighboring village , 2 and “the goodman of the 
house” whose large upper room, furnished and 
ready, was put at the disposal of the disciples 
wherein to make preparation for the coming 
passover.* 

To Jesus friendship was always two-sided. 
There were the giving and the receiving. Both 
were necessities. There is no more touching 
fact in the life of Jesus than his need of friends. 
His independence of will was not so great that 
he needed no human sympathy. He was never 
so far away from men that they could not 
reach across the distance with the offering of 
their presence and help. There was no dark 

1 Luke 8: 2, 3. 2 Mark 11: 5, 6. * Mark 14: 14, 15. 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 


279 


valley into which he entered which was not 
made lighter if he could have his friends with 
him. There was no joy which he did not exalt 
by sharing it with his companions. The chil- 
dren were his friends. He loved them and they 
were not timid in his presence. The child was 
not simply an object-lesson. When he talked 
about children he must have them near. He 
must feel the heart, and touch the cheek. To 
forbid them to come unto him was a loss to 
them, and a grief to him. When he talked 
about them, “he took them in his arms, and 
blessed them, laying his hands upon them .” 1 
This only illustrates Jesus* need of human 
friendship. He chose his disciples “that they 
might be with him.” * He could not be satis- 
fied to be alone when his soul shone out 
through his face and garments, but “he was 
transfigured before them .” 8 No less did he 
need friends to share his sorrows. It is the 
instinct of the human heart to make some 
other a confidant in sorrow. To tell of sorrow 
is to feel a part of the burden of sorrow raised. 
To try to bear it alone is to break under it. 
Jesus needed to tell some one his. When the 

1 Mark io: 16. a Mark 3: 14. * Mark 9: 2. 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


conviction was settled within him that the out- 
come of his life was to be suffering and a pre- 
mature death, he began to tell his disciples, 
“that the Son of man must suffer many 
things .” 1 His words at the Last Supper were 
the words of a man who shared his grief with 
his friends.* Gethsemane was easier because 
not far away were Peter and James and John.* 
Friendship, however, was not a mere senti- 
ment. It was no blue, gauzy mist arising 
from the need of the heart, as the vapors rise 
from the brooks, only to be swept away into 
nothing by the first violent wind. It was of 
rock, and could bear many blows. It must 
indeed be shaped by sharp chisel and blunt 
hammer into its highest form. He did not 
“treat friendships daintily, but with roughest 
courage.” 4 The sharp chisel of rebuke was 
directed against one of the Pharisees with 
whom he went to dine , 5 and the blunt hammer 
of a parable against another . 8 He firmly, even 
if gently, disapproved the conduct of Martha 
when he was a guest in her house.’ With his 

’Mark 8:31. ’Mark 14:22-25. 

• Mark 14: 32, 33. 4 Emerson, “Essays.” 

"Luke 11:39-41. " Luke 14: 7-14. 

7 Luke 10:41, 42. 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 


281 


disciples he was patient, but never afraid to 
make them feel that “faithful are the wounds 
of a friend.” He thought they should have 
comprehended the meaning of a parable which 
he spoke to the scribes and Pharisees, and chid 
them with the words, “Are ye so without 
understanding also ? ” 1 Then immediately he 
went on to explain as to little children. The 
tension of his friendship with Judas went 
beyond the breaking point. He was faithful to 
the traitor to the end, but the end came when 
he said, “The Son of man goeth, even as it is 
written of him : but woe unto that man through 
whom the Son of man is betrayed ! good were 
it for that man if he had not been born.” 2 
Because Peter was one of the dearest of all his 
friends, he did not temper the severity of the 
reproof which he thrust at him at the moment 
when the disciple would have kept him from 
the path of sacrifice: “Get thee behind me, 
Satan.” * But it was a very different sort of 
look which was on the face of Jesus, and a very 
different sort of tone which was in his voice, 
when at a later time he was obliged to recall 
the same disciple to moderation, away from 
‘Mark 7:18. “Mark 14:21. 'Mark 8:33. 


282 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the extreme vehemence of his professions of 
loyalty. The voice was of the sort which the 
child sometimes hears when he sees a tender 
smile lurking behind a stern countenance. For 
love’s excesses demand the answer of love’s 
gentlest admonition. “And Jesus saith unto 
him, Verily I say unto thee, that thou today, 
even this night, before the cock crow twice, 
shalt deny me thrice.” 1 This sort of tender 
reprimand had Jesus also for those two disci- 
ples who with Peter made up the inner circle 
of his friendship when they erred either on the 
side of intolerant loyalty , 2 or on the side of 
confusing their devotion to him with their own 
selfish hopes . 3 

Of however great worth the friendship of 
men was to Jesus, his friendship was of infi- 
nitely more worth to them. The giving and the 
receiving could not be equivalent. Friendship 
is always a matter of personality. Each man 
gives himself to the other. All the sympathy 
and courage and satisfaction of human longing 
for companionship which the friends of Jesus 
gave to him, could not in the least be compared 
with the richness of that personality from 

*Mark 14:30. 2 Luke 9: 54, 55- ‘Mark 10:42-45. 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 


283 


which they drew when he gave himself to them. 
Jesus expected much of his friends, but he gave 
them more. He did not measure his friendship 
for them by their capacity to receive. The 
highest friendship never does this. Although 
they did not live up to his expectation of them, 
so that at the critical time he had to say, “All 
ye shall be offended,” 1 yet he continued to the 
last to take them into his heart. He led them 
out with him unto the place which is called 
Gethsemane . 2 He expected supreme loyalty 
from them after he had been taken away, inso- 
much that he said to them, “Ye shall be hated 
of all men for my name’s sake: but he that 
endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” 3 
Many mighty tests of their loyalty he foresaw 
and warned them against, yet he did not re- 
lease them from complete devotion. Even 
under such forebodings, what he gave them 
was more than all that he expected of them, 
for he told them that in the midst of the dark- 
est circumstances they should “see the Son of 
man coming in clouds with great power and 
glory,” 4 and again : “Heaven and earth shall 
pass away : but my words shall not pass 

1 Mark 14: 27. * Mark 14: 32. * Mark 13: 13. 4 Mark 13: 26. 


284 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


away .” 1 With patience he expounded all 
things to his disciples in private , 2 explaining in 
all details such a parable as that of the sower 
and the seed , 8 as if sharing in the joy of their 
dawning insight into truth; as if answering 
with his own thrilling heart the question, 

“And what delights can equal those 
That stir the spirit’s inner deeps, 

When one that loves, but knows not, reaps 
A truth from one that loves and knows?” 4 

Jesus had all the thoughtfulness and solici- 
tude of true friendship. When his close friends 
came back to him, after a journey, with all the 
confidences with which their hearts were filled, 
telling him all things “whatsoever they had 
done, and whatsoever they had taught ,” 8 he 
saw their weariness, and though the work was 
pressing upon them and him, he said to them, 
“Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, 
and rest a while.” 8 After the thousands had 
been fed, and the day was gone, and the dis- 
ciples were weary with their efforts, and 
distracted by the crowds, though he needed 
their help in the care of the people, and was 
himself as weary as they, he would not let them 

1 Mark 13 : 31. * Mark 4 : 34. * Mark 4 : 14-20. 

‘Tennyson, “In Memoriam.” 8 Mark 6:30, 31. 


JESUS AS A FRIEND 


285 


stay, but sent them on to the other side of the 
lake, even as we read, “He constrained his dis- 
ciples to enter into the boat, and to go before 
him unto the other side to Bethsaida, while he 
himself sendeth the multitude away.” 1 

Truly, in the mind of Jesus friendship 
assumed high meanings. 

1 Mark 6: 45. 



















' 




\ 
























THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS 



XXI 


THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS 

That deep, genuine, kindly friendliness 
which, in the last chapter, we discovered to 
be a part of the personality of Jesus, implied a 
large, true-hearted sympathy. The two are 
inseparable companions. Neither ever exists 
apart from the other. “A friend should bear 
his friend's infirmities." 1 That is possible only 
as the friend enters by sympathy into his 
friend's infirmities. Sympathy is the ability to 
put oneself in another’s place. It is never self- 
conscious, but always self-forgetful in the 
presence of those whom it can help. It is essen- 
tially vicarious. Of every man of deep, sound 
sympathy can some others say, “He hath borne 
our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . . he 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities." 2 Sympathy is a 
large element in giving to a man what we call 
a great personality. It is a mighty magnet 
which draws all other lives to itself. Almost 

1 “ Julius Caesar.” 2 Isaiah 53 : 4 , 5- 

289 


290 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


without knowing why, they find themselves 
coming into its presence. Without reasoning 
out the cause of the attraction, they respond to 
the man of sympathy. They are sure of the 
greatest of all gifts, which is self. They are 
sure of being understood. The need of sym- 
pathy instinctively seeks out and finds such men 
of rich personality. In this way the disciples 
of John the Baptist, at that pathetic moment 
when they came away from the tomb where 
they had buried their martyred master, “went 
and told Jesus.” 1 

While there is a close relation between sym- 
pathy and experience, it is not necessary for a 
man to pass through a certain experience be- 
fore he can enter with sympathy into that 
experience in another. Sympathy is enlarged 
and enriched by experience, but it is not 
dependent upon it. The man of many griev- 
ous trials is not necessarily the man of the 
truest sympathy. Sympathy lies deeper than 
experience. It is an essential part of the per- 
sonality of a man. Jesus was the better able 
to enter into the conflicts of his friends, be- 
cause he was himself a sorely tempted man. 

1 Matthew 14: 12. 


THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS 


291 


His majestic struggle in the wilderness made 
him the better able to be touched with the feel- 
ing of men’s infirmities. His frequent contact 
through many years in Nazareth with the 
poor, with those who had sold themselves from 
liberty into slavery, with the blind, with those 
who had the signs of their bondage upon their 
bodies, helped him to shape the plan of his 
work . 1 His frequent observation of the isola- 
tion and the friendlessness of the publican, and 
the ostracized condition of the sinner, opened 
his heart the wider to the oppressed classes in 
society. By the time he entered upon his pub- 
lic ministry, his mind was so filled with the 
hopeless condition of these classes, and his 
heart so crowded with emotions of desire to 
help them, that he was ready to offer a heart 
full of love to all such who came in his way. 
His experience had enlarged his sympathies 
and given them their direction. Yet they had 
not created them. Sympathy was a part of his 
nature. There was always a man behind and 
beyond experience. 

A similar relation exists between sympathy 
and the knowledge of men and conditions. 

1 Luke 4 : 18-21. 


292 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


Such knowledge means the increase of the ten- 
derness and the breadth of sympathy. But 
such knowledge is not the creator of sympathy. 
It is possible for a man to know all the hard 
conditions of his neighbors, and yet to steel his 
heart against their needs. Another man comes 
to the needs of his neighbors with a fine, deep 
sensitiveness of sympathy, ready to answer 
every need with help. Jesus’ knowledge of 
men indicates that in his early life he was a 
keen observer of conditions, and a true inter- 
preter of circumstances. He came up to his 
public ministry with a profound and ready 
sympathy, trained by long and sensitive con- 
tact with the conditions of life. Political 
tendencies he had observed so truly and inter- 
preted so correctly that he wept over the 
nation’s capital in the thought of its impend- 
ing doom . 1 The causes of sin, the conditions 
of society which made sin easy, and that de- 
pravity of life out of which it was so difficult 
for some to rise, he had studied with so much 
discrimination that, while he pronounced his 
unqualified condemnation upon hypocrisy, and 
those who practised it,* he was quick and 
1 Luke 19: 41. * Matthew 23: 13. 


THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS 


293 


ready with his forgiveness for that woman 
who wetted his feet with her tears/ and that 
man who, sick with the palsy, came unto him 
borne of four . 3 His compassion was called out 
for that multitude which, driven by an unde- 
fined and unsatisfied longing for religion, fol- 
lowed him out into the waste places, and was 
there “as sheep not having a shepherd .” 3 
And when he talked with a man who sincerely, 
though mistakenly, had been seeking eternal 
life, he “looking upon him, loved him.” 4 

These facts indicate that Jesus understood 
the conditions of men, and read their deeper 
history through his knowledge of their condi- 
tions. This was the increase and the enrich- 
ment of his sympathy. But it did not create 
his sympathy. There was an element in his 
personality, lying back of this, which showed 
itself not in sentimentalism but in a quick re- 
sponsiveness. The helplessness of insanity/ 

the prostration of fever/ the sadness of a dis- 
eased population/ the impotence of paralysis/ 
the pathos of deformity/ the emotions of 

1 Luke 7: 47. 1 2 Mark 2: 5. * Mark 6: 34. 

4 Mark 10:21. 8 Mark 1:25. 8 Mark 1:31. 

7 Mark 1 : 33, 34- 8 Mark 2: 5. 8 Mark 3:3. 


294 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


anxiety and great sorrow , 1 all made their 
immediate appeals to the deep-lying tenderness 
and strong, ready sympathy of Jesus, so that 
even the dumb petition of utmost timidity 
called out the question, “Who touched my 
garments ? ” 2 

This deep, responsive sympathy was behind 
all the cures which he effected. This com- 
manding figure among the forces of his person- 
ality sent out its royal edict to his will which 
then in turn exercised its mighty authority 
over the wills of others. Behind the process 
lay the cause in sympathy. He was “moved 
with compassion” at the sight of leprous spots . 8 
He sighed as he placed his fingers upon blind 
eyes . 4 Of the father of the demoniac boy, he 
asked the question, prompted by pity, “How 
long time is it since this hath come unto 
him ?” 8 The whole philosophy of his heal- 
ing and teaching ministry he condensed into 
the sentence, “They that are whole have no 
need of a physician, but they that are sick: I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” * 

As we have already noticed, the sympathy of 

1 Mark 5: 23, 24. * Mark 5:30. * Mark 1 : 41. 

4 Mark 7: 34. * Mark 9: 21. * Mark 2: 17. 


THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS 


295 


Jesus usually expressed itself, where circum- 
stances permitted, by a touch. The power of 
contact to convey emotions of tender sympathy 
is known both to every giver and to every 
recipient of sympathy. That the contact of 
Jesus with those who were in trouble was the 
necessary means by which he conveyed the 
power of his will to them, we cannot believe, 
since there are recorded cases in which there 
was no touch. That the contact of Jesus with 
those whom he helped was the instinctive 
movement and impulse of his great sympathy, 
we can readily understand. The leper, 1 the 
blind, 2 the fever-stricken, 3 the insane/ and 
many others/ he laid his hands upon. 

Sympathy is always an unmeasured and im- 
measurable element in personality. It is mani- 
fested only in its effects, yet its effects do not 
fully reveal it. The clearest evidence of its 
greatness is that need finds there as by instinct 
its comfort and satisfaction. If this test 
is applied to Jesus, we find in him a man of 
the deepest and most exhaustless sympathy, 
for in his train was always the innumerable 

1 Mark 1:41. a Mark 8:25. 'Mark 1:31. 

* Mark 9: 27. 6 Mark 6: 56. 


296 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


company of those; who, friendless or diseased 
or sorrowful, found in his presence the cheer, 
or strength, or comfort which their necessity 
demanded. 


JESUS AS A MAN OF PRAYER 

























































































































































































































































































































XXII 

JESUS AS A MAN OF PRAYER 

The deep genuineness and reality of Jesus' 
life,, which we have taken for granted in our 
thoughts of him from the beginning, force us 
to the conclusion that, because he prayed, 
prayer was one of the great, common human 
needs which he felt and satisfied. To suppose 
that he prayed simply for the sake of the 
example is to make him despicable in the sight 
of God. To conclude that Gethsemane stands 
for less of a struggle than it seems to imply in 
the record, is to discredit Jesus in the sight of 
men. Prayer implies the need of prayer. The 
need of prayer implies dependence. This con- 
clusion is entirely in harmony with the effect 
produced upon us by a careful and unpreju- 
diced reading of the Gospels. 

We are not dealing now with the theory of 
prayer, nor with the average man's need of 
prayer. We have not so much to do with the 
content of Jesus' prayers, nor with the teach- 


299 


3oo 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ing of Jesus on the subject of prayer. We have 
to do only with the effect of prayer upon the 
personality of Jesus. His life was what we 
sometimes call “a prayerful life.” We are 
assuming nothing in such a statement. Of 
him it was preeminently true that “Certain 
thoughts are prayers. There are moments 
when the soul is kneeling, no matter what the 
attitude of the body may be.” 1 When we re- 
member that the basis of all Jesus’ thinking 
was the conclusion which he reached before 
his baptism that he was the Messiah, that he 
held a special relation to God, that he was 
doing the work of his Father in the world, we 
may be satisfied to rest our reasons for his 
need of prayer upon the following statement 
by Professor Coe: “A mother and a father, 
through labor and sacrifice, bring up a son, 
educate him, and send him forth from home 
to fulfil some mission that is dear to them as 
it is also to him. In his daily labor the son is 
really cooperating with his parents. He thinks 
their thoughts, feels with them, makes their 
purposes his own. Yet, ever and anon, the 
impulse seizes him to visit the old homestead, 
1 Hugo, “ Les Miserables.” 


JESUS AS A MAN OF PRAYER 


301 


that he may talk with them face to face.” 1 
Jesus evidently could not be satisfied, however 
fully he seemed to be doing the will of his 
Father, unless now and again he talked with 
him face to face. 

Prayer is a large, determining factor in per- 
sonality. The charm, the fascination, the 
attractiveness, the power of personality are all 
enriched and beautified by prayer. Its reflex 
influence upon character is such that the man is 
made a greater man by it. Moreover, we judge 
men, and estimate their worth to society, and 
the safety with which we can put ourselves 
under the influence of their personality, by the 
evidence that their lives are prayerful lives. 
The mere fact that a man prays is little in such 
an estimate. The sort of prayer which lies just 
beneath his consciousness, ready to offer itself, 
is the determining fact. A man may pray the 
prayer of the Pharisee. Then we set him 
down as one of the most dangerous of men. 
He may pray the prayer of the publican, and 
because he humbles himself we feel safe in 
exalting him. The prayers of Jesus were 
never self-centered. They were, first, of the 

1 “ The Religion of a Mature Mind.” 


302 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


sort which deepens and enriches personality. 
They were, second, of the sort which gives the 
larger outlook, and saves from selfishness. 

The prayers of Jesus which helped to enrich 
and deepen his personality were prayers of 
thanksgiving and communion. For the simplic- 
ity and beauty of that truth which could be 
understood by the unlearned and the innocent, 
but which was quite overlooked by those who 
were wise in their own conceits, he gave thanks 
to God: “1 thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these 
things from the wise and understanding, and 
didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for 
so it was well-pleasing in thy sight.” 1 When 
he was with that multitude upon whom he had 
compassion because they were as sheep hav- 
ing no shepherd, he took the loaves and the 
fishes, and before he gave them to his disciples, 
he looked up to heaven and blessed them. 2 Of 
the same nature was the prayer which he 
offered at the Last Supper. 3 Long-continued 
communion with God sometimes came to be a 
need which he must satisfy. When he felt the 

1 Matthew 11:25,26. 2 Mark 6: 41; 8: 7. 

8 Mark 14: 22. 


JESUS AS A MAN OF PRAYER 303 


exhaustion of a great day’s work upon him, and 
the necessity of renewing that energy which 
went out so freely to men, he prayed. It was 
after the healing of many diseases that “in the 
morning, a great while before day, he rose up 
and went out, and departed into a desert place, 
and there prayed .” 1 At another time of exhaus- 
tion, after the feeding of the five thousand, “he 
departed into the mountain to pray.” 2 Before 
he faced the heart-breaking experience of the 
betrayal, he confessed to the disciples his need 
of prayer, saying, as they came to Gethsemane, 
“ Sit ye here, while I pray.” 8 

The record of Luke is so entirely in accord 
with the spirit of Jesus as it is disclosed in the 
other Gospels, that there is no reason to ques- 
tion its correctness. According to the story of 
Luke, Jesus was known to have prayed at all 
the critical moments of his life. The need of 
prayer was constant. No important step could 
be taken without it, and no great experience 
could be expected except in relation with it. At 
his baptism , 4 before choosing his disciples , 8 
before the great confession at Caesarea Phil- 

1 Mark 1:35. 2 Mark 6:46. * Mark 14:32. 

4 Luke 3: 21. 6 Luke 6: 12, 13. 


304 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ippi , 1 at the transfiguration , 3 as well as in 
Gethsemane 3 and on the cross , 4 Jesus prayed. 
These were prayers of communion. They 
were for the enrichment and strengthening of 
character and personality. 

Jesus also prayed for the larger outlook and 
deliverance from self. Such prayers were for 
the fortifying of his will by bringing it into 
absolute harmony with the will of God. They 
imply struggle and self-discipline. They in- 
volve a certain subjugation of self, by the sub- 
stitution of another force which he recognized 
as greater, and another purpose which he recog- 
nized as wiser. The healing of the insane boy 
was made possible, as he said .afterward to his 
disciples, only by prayer . 5 Gethsemane was a 
mighty contest. Will was against will. Re- 
peatedly were they brought face to face. At 
last he rose to the higher purpose, and yielded 
utterly to the other will , 6 being delivered from 
the last claim which self made upon him. His 
cry upon the cross was a prayer for the final 
assurance of God’s presence and approval . 7 

Jesus was dependent upon prayer. He felt 

1 Luke 9: 18. 2 Luke 9: 29. * Luke 22: 4 2. 

4 Luke 23:46. “Mark 9:29. 6 Mark 14:36. 

7 Mark 15 * 34 - 


JESUS AS A MAN OF PRAYER 305 

profoundly the need of it. There can be no 
other explanation of his prayers than that they 
were the satisfaction of a deep and genuine 
longing. Those about him were aware of his 
habit of prayer. They saw his spirit en- 
riched, his life beautified, his character sweet- 
ened, his relations with men made deeper, more 
tender and more efficient by his praying. They 
judged him, in the influence of his life upon 
them, and in the place which they assigned him 
in their thoughts and their affections, through 
this fact. Seeing that his grip upon the world 
was tightened, that his influence was enlarged, 
that his helpfulness was enriched, it is no sur- 
prise that they felt that he could teach them 
how those longings which they themselves felt 
might best be satisfied. Eagerly therefore they 
listened when he said, “After this manner 
therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in 
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on 
earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And 
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven 
our debtors. And bring us not into tempta- 
tion, but deliver us from the evil one .” 1 


1 Matthew 6: 9-13. 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 




XXIII 

THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great 
undertakings,” said Samuel Johnson. Of this 
quality Jesus had great need. For the task 
which he set himself was stupendous. Yet 
the personality of Jesus was so symmetrically 
developed that his self-confidence never gained 
the mastery over those other qualities which 
were meant to regulate it. That experience 
out of which Jesus taught, and from which he 
did his work, had wrought in him its double 
result. Consciousness of power was saved 
from becoming self-conceit by humility, and 
humility was saved from becoming despair by 
self-confidence. The parallel growth of these 
two qualities in his personality is remarkable, 
so that we cannot approach the study of the 
self-confidence of Jesus without calling up the 
memory of those words by which he described 
himself : “I am meek and lowly in heart.” 1 

The self-confidence of Jesus was inspired 
Matthew 11:29. 

309 


3io 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


both by the urgency of his mission, and by the 
certainty of help from above. More than to 
the man of whom they were written do these 
words apply to Jesus: 

“ To the spirit select there is no choice ; 

He cannot say, This will I do, or that, 

For the cheap means putting Heaven’s ends in pawn, 
And bartering his bleak rocks, the freehold stern 
Of destiny’s first-born, for smoother fields 
That yield no crop of self-denying will ; 

A hand is stretched to him from out the dark, 

Which grasping without question, he is led 
Where there is work that he must do for God.” 1 

There were the inner compulsion and the outer 
guidance. The magnitude of men’s need and 
the decision to fulfil the mission of the Messiah 
constituted the first. The prayerfulness of his 
life and its dependence upon God clearly indi- 
cate the second. 

The personality of Jesus became strangely 
magnetic, and grandly impressive through his 
self-confidence. He undertook tasks which 
men had always placed in the realm of the 
impossible. He undertook them calmly and 
fearlessly. He did not flinch in the face of 
them. He undertook them as if they were his 
appointed work in the world, assigned to him 


1 Lowell, “ Columbus.’ 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 31 1 


by a guiding will and purpose which he did not 
question. His complacent acceptance of seem- 
ingly impossible tasks is impressive. His rea- 
soning was after this simple sort : If God has 
set me these tasks, I must be able to do them. 
We see him, therefore, with unexampled tran- 
quillity and almost startling assurance accept- 
ing the tasks which ancient prophecy had set 
for the Messiah, even while he placed upon 
those tasks the most difficult interpretation. 

This undaunted self-confidence of Jesus we 
take note of, as it stood face to face with dis- 
ease. Our oldest record, the Gospel of Mark, 
throws upon the screen of history the living 
picture of a man who walked up and down 
amid the diseases which flesh is heir to, carry- 
ing everywhere life, vigor, courage, restora- 
tion. There are no evidences of inner debates 
whether he was able to do the deeds which 
he set himself, nor whether it was wise to do 
them. He was as self-reliant as he was fear- 
less. The difficulty of the labor did not result 
in hesitation. With promptness which sug- 
gests no questioning he spoke and acted. If he 
was in a synagogue where there was a man 
“which had his hand withered/' the word of 


312 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


command went out from him, “Stand forth. 

. . . Stretch forth thy hand.” 1 To the wild, 
lonely victim of insanity in the country of the 
Gerasenes, he said, “Come forth, thou unclean 
spirit, out of the man .” 2 The Syrophoenician 
woman heard him say, “The devil is gone out 
of thy daughter.” * With utmost confidence, 
as if the thing which was to be had already 
been accomplished, he spoke to the blind man 
near Jericho, “Thy faith hath made thee 
whole;” 4 to one blind and deaf, “Be opened.” * 
When the centurion came to him, saying, 
“Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of 
the palsy, grievously tormented,” Jesus an- 
swered him with the utmost calmness, with 
absolute assurance, “I will come and heal 
him.” e When he came down from the mount 
of transfiguration to find that his disciples had 
failed to cure a boy who had been brought to 
them by a father, in the same sentence in 
which he rebuked the disciples for their lack 
of faith, he said, “Bring him unto me.” 7 That 
request of Jairus (“My little daughter is at the 
point of death : I pray thee, that thou come and 

1 Mark 3: 1-5. * Mark 5:8. * Mark 7: 29. 

4 Mark 10:52. 8 Mark 7:34. 8 Matthew 8:6,7. 

7 Mark 9: 19. 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 313 


lay thy hands on her, that she may be made 
whole, and live” *) which, it might be supposed, 
would have staggered the confidence of the 
most self-reliant man, was met by Jesus with 
the calm assurance which characterized him in 
lesser tests. Such a demand was met by a 
prompt response : “And he went with him. ,, * 
In the sequel of the story, as he stood face to 
face with that which others have pronounced 
death, he was still undismayed, unagitated, as 
he “goeth in where the child was.” Taking 
her by the hand he said, “ Damsel, I say unto 
thee, Arise.” 8 

Such audacity, such a standing up of a David 
before a Goliath, such temerity in attempting 
the seemingly impossible, is at first thought 
startling. It would seem to insure its own 
downfall and disgrace, until we remember that 
it was one of the qualities of a man who was 
“meek and lowly in heart ” ; 4 who had so little 
trust in his own unaided ability that before the 
great occasions of his life he needed to pray; 
who was tempted by many forms of sin, one of 
which was unbounded ambition, but without 

1 Mark 5: 23. 2 Mark 5:24. 

•Mark 5:40,41. 4 Matthew 11:29. 


314 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


yielding; who was so pure of heart that he 
revealed God as God had never been revealed 
before; a man of so great self-forgetfulness 
that he rose above all failure, interpreted suc- 
cess on the deeper side, and, seeing that the 
only honorable outcome of his life of useful- 
ness was an ignominious death, accepted his 
fate without flinching. Against such a back- 
ground, the self-confidence of Jesus assumes 
another meaning, and a deeper impressiveness. 

We have to take note also of this self-confi- 
dence of Jesus, as it stood face to face with 
nature. The personality of the man goes 
towering above us when we look at his behavior 
in the storm on the lake. Even his presence of 
mind in the midst of panic-stricken fishermen is 
not so memorable as his tranquil assurance 
when he “rebuked the wind, and said unto 
the sea, Peace, be still.” 1 No less are we made 
to wonder at that same assurance with which 
he faced the multitudes in the desert place, 
when, after the disciples had gone to see how 
many loaves and fishes there were, and had re- 
ported five loaves and two fishes, “he com- 
manded them that all should sit down by 
1 Mark 4: 39. 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 315 

companies upon the green grass. . . . And he 
took the five loaves and the two fishes, and 
looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake the 
loaves; and he gave to the disciples to set be- 
fore them.” 1 To the fig-tree which had dis- 
appointed his expectation of finding fruit, he 
said, “No man eat fruit from thee hencefor- 
ward for ever.” 2 He summed up the assur- 
ance which lay in his own heart in his teaching 
to his disciples: “Have faith in God. Verily 
I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this 
mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the 
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall 
believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he 
shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All 
things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe 
that ye have received them, and ye shall have 
them.” 3 

There are a few apparent exceptions. There 
were some situations which he could not face 
without making a new measurement of the 
forces at his command. These exceptions point 
to no weakness. In no case do they indicate 
failure. They show that his courage was sane, 
and his self-reliance thoughtful. They prove 

1 Mark 6: 39, 41. a Mark 11 : 14. 8 Mark n : 22-24. 


3i6 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


that he did not approach his tasks without 
appreciating their difficulties; and that he did 
not come up to the crises of his life without 
measuring their magnitude. What special dif- 
ficulty there was in healing the blind man of 
Bethsaida does not appear. For some reason 
the cure was not as immediate as most. In the 
nature of the disease, or in the constitution of 
the man, there may have been some obstacle 
which measured large as Jesus undertook the 
task. In any case there was an unusual delay, 
indicated by the question which Jesus asked 
the man after he had laid his hands upon him : 
“Seest thou aught? And he looked up, and 
said, I see men; for I behold them as trees, 
walking.” Immediately the full self-confi- 
dence of Jesus asserts itself. “Again he laid 
his hands upon his eyes; and he looked sted- 
fastly, and was restored, and saw all things 
clearly .” 1 Luke seems to admit us to a 
moment of discouragement on the part of 
Jesus in that saying, “When the Son of man 
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?” 3 
His approaching capture was so severe a test 
that he needed the thrice-repeated prayer for 


1 Mark 8: 23-25. 


’Luke 18:8. 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 317 


strength before he faced it” 1 On the cross 
there was a moment when it seemed to him 
that he was deserted by the God in whom he 
had found all his confidence. 2 Not one of these 
questioning moments, however, led to defeat. 
Each was a hesitation, but not a retreat, a 
moment for gathering the forces before the 
final charge and the ultimate, perfect victory. 

The self-confidence of Jesus was a part of 
the result of the absolute purity of life which 
admitted him into the certainty of truth. He 
was a man who knew. Truth is the intuition 
of the pure heart. Having such an intuition, 
backed by deep experience, he could venture 
all things. Therefore he spoke with confi- 
dent authority. In the proclamation of truth, 
the self-confidence of Jesus was absolute. As 
in his debate with the lawyers and Pharisees 
on a certain sabbath, 3 so in all matters relating 
to the truth, he was sure of being in the right. 
This rock-built self-confidence showed itself in 
such sayings as these: “Ask, and it shall be 
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and 
it shall be opened unto you : for every one that 
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; 

1 Mark 14:41* * Mark 15: 34 * * Luke 14:5,6. 


318 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


and to him that knocketh it shall be opened ." 1 
Or, as at another time : “All things are possible 
to him that believeth." 2 This unfailing confi- 
dence in the truth which he uttered was dis- 
closed in the saying to his disciples, “There is 
no man that hath left house, or brethren, or 
sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or 
lands, for my sake, and for the gospel's sake, 
but he shall receive a hundredfold ." 8 Nor 
could he conceive that his truth should ever be 
superseded. It was final. It was eternally 
enduring. “Heaven and earth shall pass away : 
but my words shall not pass away ." 4 This 
self-confidence of Jesus asserted itself over life 
and death, over space and time. “The Son of 
man," he told his disciples, “must ... be 
killed, and after three days rise again " ; 8 and 
when he was bidding them farewell : “After I 
am raised up, I will go before you into 
Galilee ." 8 

The man of tested and approved self-confi- 
dence is always the man who inspires confi- 
dence in others. This is one of the final tests 
of the power of personality. The great per- 

1 Matthew 7:7, 8. 3 Mark 9: 23. 8 Mark 10:29,30. 

4 Mark 13:31. 8 Mark 8: 31. "Mark 14:28. 


THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF JESUS 319 

sonality gathers the faith of others about itself. 
The people came to believe in Jesus. He 
proved so many times the validity of his claims 
that they gained confidence in him. By means 
of this confidence a great part of his success 
was achieved. The wills of men responded to 
him because men believed in his power. One 
of the most remarkable characteristics of Jesus 
was the power of inspiring confidence in others 
through his own self-confidence. Weary and 
discouraged fishermen, who had been laboring 
all night and had caught nothing, cast their nets 
again at his word . 1 The man with the withered 
hand responded, and reached forth his arm at 
the command of Jesus . 2 Blind men felt all 
their own vigor of will return to them when he 
said, “Be opened .’ 1 * An anxious father be- 
came courageous and hopeful when he found 
that Jesus would go with him . 4 The centurion 
showed so much faith that it exceeded all that 
had been found in Israel . 6 A woman believed 
his word about her daughter, and went home 
to see her recovered child . 8 Men who were 
plunged in their business of fishing or tax- 

1 Luke 5: 5 - 2 Mark 3: 5. ‘Mark 7:34. 

4 Mark 5: 24. B Matthew 8: 10. 9 Mark 7: 30. 


320 WHO THEN IS THIS 

gathering left their occupations when he called 
them to follow him . 1 Disciples felt their own 
self-confidence assuming somewhat the meas- 
ure of his, when he gave them authority . 1 
When they were on the lake in a storm, their 
fear was abated by his mere presence, and his 
word, “It is I.” * Disciples rose at once to the 
dignity of apostles, when he gave to one of 
their number, “the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven.” 4 

These were the results of the self-confidence 
of Jesus in bringing his personality to bear 
upon men. So well founded was it, so ap- 
proved, so gracious and yet so mighty, that 
he inspired faith in himself, and built up self- 
confidence in others. 


1 Mark i: 16-20; 2: 14. 
* Mark 6: 50. 


2 Mark 6: 7, 13. 

4 Matthew 16:19. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 


XXIV 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 

The self-assertive man is the man who makes 
strong friends and strong enemies. His per- 
sonality becomes in itself an issue. Upon that 
issue people divide. Friendships are made and 
lost because of him. There is no middle posi- 
tion. A person must array himself on the side 
of support or of hostility. He who is not for 
such a man is against him. 

When this commonly observed fact is raised 
to its highest power, it helps to explain the crit- 
ical importance of the personality of Jesus to 
the lives of those who touched his life. Wher- 
ever he went he raised a great moral issue. 
He made himself the central point of that 
issue. It was an issue of such primary impor- 
tance and such searching power that men could 
not avoid it. It was set forth in such form that 
the failure of a man to commit himself in its 
favor was a committal of himself against it. 
This self-assertion of Jesus was so pronounced 


323 


324 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


that, by means of it, he put at variance those 
who held the closest relations . 1 

This self-assertion was a necessity. It was 
the only way by which his mission could be ful- 
filled. He deemed it his highest purpose in life 
to raise this great moral issue. He must there- 
fore center the issue about himself. This 
involved the pressing of himself forward as 
the polarizing force. The mere statement of 
cold principles would not be enough. It never 
is enough. There must be a personality to 
vitalize the principles. His own personality 
must therefore be forced to the front, as the 
center about which men might gather; as the 
one to whom those who favored the truth in 
the moral issue might swear their allegiance. 
Out of the very necessity of the case came 
forth the self-assertion of Jesus; and when the 
necessity became more apparent as his min- 
istry progressed, that self-assertion became 
more pronounced. 

This urgency of Jesus in pressing himself 
into the notice of men was the act of a man of 
natural reserve performing a peremptory duty. 
In the previous chapter on “ Jesus in Success ” 


Matthew io: 35. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 325 


we have observed this fact, and have 
noticed the evidence which the Gospels produce 
to indicate that Jesus preferred to work un- 
noticed, and to keep himself in retirement. 
This modesty of Jesus was of the sort which 
Ruskin describes as “the measuring virtue. ,, 1 
It was the ability to measure with absolute ac- 
curacy his own powers as compared with those 
of the men about him. It was of the sort 
which knows itself. Such a quality cannot 
degenerate into mere shrinking. It may de- 
velop, under the compulsion of duty, into a 
strong self-assertion. 

Jesus by his self-assertion raised his author- 
ity above that of institutions, customs, laws, 
and the great men of the past. The messages 
which all these had been bringing to men 
through the centuries were to be superseded by 
the message which came from him. The pri- 
vate in an army must obey the command of a 
lieutenant, but a general has the right to coun- 
termand all such orders. The child must sub- 
mit to the better wisdom of his older brothers, 
but when the father speaks, all must obey. 
Prophets and lawgivers were lieutenants and 


1 “ The Queen of the Air.’ 


326 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


older brothers. The word which Jesus spoke 
was to be considered the command of the gen- 
eral and the father. Men must form theories 
of life, and live by them; but when an unques- 
tionable law is discovered, all theories must be 
judged by agreement with or divergence from 
that law. Law and prophecy were theories of 
life to which men had conformed because 
they were the best possible for their times. 
Jesus asserted that the truth which he spoke 
was the final truth, the unquestionable law of 
life. All previous utterances must recognize its 
supremacy. 

The traditions of the Pharisees and of all the 
Jews were so rigid in the matter of the wash- 
ing of hands, and of “cups, and pots, and 
brasen vessels,” 1 that when Jesus failed to con- 
form he was immediately criticized. It was a 
national custom which he disregarded. He as- 
serted his principles above the beliefs of all the 
people, when he called to him the multitude, 
and said, “Hear me all of you, and under- 
stand : there is nothing from without the man, 
that going into him can defile him: but the 
things which proceed out of the man are those 


1 Mark 7:4. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 32 7 

that defile the man .” 1 Above the sacred insti- 
tution of the Jewish Sabbath, with all the accu- 
mulations of tradition which had gathered 
about it through the centuries, he proclaimed 
his rights . 2 Above the opportunities which 
men in Nineveh had for repentance were the 
opportunities of those who listened to his mes- 
sage . 8 Wiser words than those which Solo- 
mon spoke were the words which he uttered . 3 
He deliberately abrogated the law of divorce 
which the great lawgiver had proclaimed, put- 
ting himself in a place of superiority over 
Moses . 4 Again and again he denied the final 
validity of the principles laid down by those 
of the olden time, principles which had been 
obeyed for generations, putting over against 
their authority the simple statement, “But I 
say unto you.” 6 When he sat down in the 
“large upper room” with his disciples, he sup- 
planted the ancient institution of the Passover 
by saying of the bread, “This is my body,” 
and of the wine, “This is my blood.” 6 In the 
parable of the husbandman he pointed to him- 

1 Mark 7: 14, 15. 2 Mark 2: 28. 3 Matthew 12: 41, 42. 

* Mark 10: 3-12. 8 Matthew 5: 22, 28, 34, 39, 44 - 

4 Mark 14 : 22, 24. 


328 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


self as the culmination of all religious history ; 
as the final messenger of God to men . 1 

He went much farther than this class of cases 
indicates, for he set himself up as the center of 
the moral life of men. The great moral issues 
of life had to do primarily with him. They 
were determined by relation to him. His per- 
sonality was so majestic, and so commanding, 
so fully represented the ultimate laws of the 
moral world, that the relation which men held 
to truth was revealed by the relation which they 
held to him. He was the absolute standard, 
and therefore he was the final arbiter, the 
judge of men. To himself he made the appli- 
cation of ancient Scripture : 

“ The stone which the builders rejected, 

The same was made the head of the corner.” 2 

The rich and virtuous man, who had lived 
according to the law from his youth, and cher- 
ished such purposes that Jesus, when he looked 
upon him, loved him, must prove his sincerity 
of motive by selling what he had, giving to the 
poor, and following Jesus . 9 The test of those 
two disciples who showed their mistaken zeal 
and friendship by wishing to sit at his side in 

1 Mark 12 : 1-7. * Mark 12 : 10. ' Mark 10 : 21. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 329 

the new kingdom, was in the question, “Are ye 
able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be 
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized 
with ?" 1 Those who were worthy of him must 
be attached to him by ties stronger than all 
other human ties: “He that loveth father or 
mother more than me is not worthy of me ; and 
he that loveth son or daughter more than me is 
not worthy of me.” 8 Self-denial, in taking up 
his cross and following him, was to determine 
whether a man was losing his life or saving it.* 
He asserted that even the smallest number 
could not be gathered together in his name, but 
that he was himself in the midst of them . 4 He 
stated as plainly as words could make it, that 
he considered himself the final judge of men's 
moral destiny, when he said, “Then will I pro- 
fess unto them, I never knew you : depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity." 8 That there might 
be no mistake in his meaning he put it into 
another form : “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it 
unto me." 9 Thus at the center of all moral life 
Jesus placed himself, and every man's relation 

"Mark 10:38. 3 Matthew 10:37. 'Mark 8:34,35. 

‘Matthew 18:20. ‘Matthew 7:23. ‘Matthew 25:40. 


330 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


to the moral life was but a radius which con- 
nected the man with him. 

Every strongly magnetic personality repels 
at the same time that it attracts. Such is the 
law of human life. The self-assertion of Jesus 
made strong enmities. If he had chosen the 
way of retirement, the outcome of his life 
would have been very different. By self-as- 
sertion he aroused indignation, and the mur- 
derous anger of the rulers. Sometimes the 
populace itself was wrathful. When he an- 
nounced to the people of Nazareth his purpose 
to do the work of the Messiah, “they were all 
filled with wrath” 1 at his presumption; and the 
Gerasenes, at the very opening of his work in 
their midst, “began to beseech him to depart 
from their borders.” 2 Even his friends went 
out to lay hold upon him, thinking that he 
must be insane.* The scribes were shocked 
that he should dare to pronounce a sinful man 
forgiven . 4 The chief priests and scribes “were 
moved with indignation,” when he accepted 
the title “Son of David” from the children who 
were crying out in the temple . 6 It was because 

1 Luke 4:28. 3 Mark 5:17. 8 Mark 3:21. 

4 Mark 2: 7. 8 Matthew 21: 15. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 331 

these classes were aroused to deadly opposition 
by his self-assumptions, that his life was sac- 
rificed. 

In spite of this opposition, in spite of those 
repulsions which were the necessary result of 
the assertion of his strong personality, Jesus 
considered the self-assertion so imperatively 
necessary, that he continued to make it. Not 
only did he speak with an authority greater than 
that of customs, institutions, laws, and the men 
of the past, but he also spoke with the author- 
ity of God himself. His perfect purity was the 
channel of final authority. His point of view 
of all moral questions was that of God. 
His judgments were identical with those of 
God. He apprehended the truth in its com- 
pleteness. God does not do more. He saw the 
heart of all moral issues. God can go no far- 
ther. Therefore he asserted his right to speak 
for God. With this authority behind him he 
went into the temple in Jerusalem and “over- 
threw the tables of the money-changers, and the 
seats of them that sold the doves.” 1 He pro- 
claimed that his judgments upon earth would 
be recognized as faultless by Him who rules in 
1 Mark 11:15. 


332 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


heaven, saying, “Every one therefore who 
shall confess me before men, him will I also 
confess before my Father which is in heaven. 
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him 
will I also deny before my Father which is in 
heaven.” 1 To receive his word and to recog- 
nize his place in the moral life of man was to 
receive and to recognize the absolute and final 
truth, “Whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not 
me, but him that sent me.” 2 In his personality 
and in his teaching were to be found all things. 
For God had given all things to him. The 
knowledge which he had of the Father was 
comparable with the knowledge which the 
Father had of him. There was no way of 
knowing God perfectly except by receiving the 
knowledge from him . 3 In the end there would 
be a perfect vindication of the sovereignty of 
his personality, for the Son of man would 
come with power and great glory, and his elect 
would be gathered “from the four winds .” 4 

Such colossal assertions of self, such majestic 
assumptions of authority were forces which the 
world had to reckon with. Such a personality 

1 Matthew io: 32, 33. 2 Mark 9: 37. 

•Matthew 11:27. 4 Mark 13:27. 


THE SELF-ASSERTION OF JESUS 333 

forced itself upon the notice of men. It created 
an issue out of which it must come forth with 
general recognition of its right, or defeated 
and crushed. The immediate outcome was the 
death of the man who made such claims. But 
that was not the end. The personality of Jesus 
was such, in connection with his self-assertions, 
that the world has found it necessary to account 
for it. The mighty question appears again with 
each succeeding generation : Who was this man 
with such a personality ? What is the meaning 
of his self-assertions? 



JESUS AS A MYSTIC 








XXV 


JESUS AS A MYSTIC 

One who has written well upon the subject 
has defined mysticism as follows: “Mysticism 
may be defined as the attempt to realize the 
presence of the living God in the soul and in 
nature, or, more generally, as the attempt to 
realize, in thought and feeling, the immanence 
of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eter- 
nal in the temporal.” 1 In this sense Jesus was 
the great mystic; for thought and life gath- 
ered about his consciousness of the unseen, and 
his interpretation of the common things of life 
into the terms of the infinite. The whole 
course of nature was to him a series of sym- 
bols speaking of the unseen in a language 
which was almost articulate. In the deepest 
sense he was a poet, and performed the func- 
tions of a poet, as one of that glorious com- 
pany has described those functions : 

“ And I believed the poets ; it is they 
Who utter wisdom from the central deep, 

And, listening to the inner flow of things, 

Speak to the age out of eternity.” 8 

1 Inge, “ Christian Mysticism.” a Lowell, “Columbus.” 

337 


338 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


In the presence of men, Jesus felt himself also 
in the presence of God ; face to face with life, 
he felt himself face to face with eternity. God 
was as real a fact as man, and eternity as real 
as life. 

The mysticism of Jesus is seen in those con- 
firmations, which came to him from life's 
events, of his own mission in the world and of 
his relation to God, whom he called his Father. 
Events which were important to others became 
transcendent to him. Those experiences in 
which others had deep emotions, moved him so 
profoundly that they could be described only 
in terms unique. The meaning of such experi- 
ences passed beyond the range of other men's 
observation. The rite of baptism is sacred to 
every man. According to the depths of his 
emotional nature, he feels the touch of the 
unseen and the unveiling of the eternal. New 
convictions of duty grasp his soul. When 
Jesus came up out of the water, the experience 
was to him as the rending of the heavens asun- 
der, and the coming of the Spirit was as the 
descent of a dove. Duty’s confirmation was so 
clear as to be a voice coming out of the heav- 
ens, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am 


JESUS AS A MYSTIC 


339 


well pleased .” 1 When he went up into a 
mountain to commune with God, and a cloud 
overshadowed him, the presence which was 
with him was so real and the unseen was 
so articulate that a voice again said, “This is 
my beloved Son : hear ye him.” 2 As he went 
on in the fulfilment of his mission, all events 
conspired to establish the conviction of his 
relation to God, and his special place of serv- 
ice among men, so that, though it involved 
rejection and suffering, he identified himself 
with that one in the parable of whom the 
Father said, “They will reverence my son,” and 
of whom the husbandmen said, “This is the 
heir ; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance 
shall be ours,” 3 This relation of Jesus to the 
unseen God came to be so intimate and so 
supremely real that he said of it: “All things 
have been delivered unto me of my Father: 
and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; 
neither doth any know the Father, save the 
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to 
reveal him.” 4 So firmly at last did he feel his 
position established that he looked forward 

1 Mark i: n. 2 Mark 9: 7. 

s Mark 12:6, 7. 4 Matthew 11:27. 


340 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


through all the suffering of his own career, the 
trials which should come to his followers, and 
the disturbances which should disrupt society, 
and saw “the Son of man sitting at the right 
hand of power, and coming with the clouds of 
heaven .” 1 

All these unquestionable evidences of the 
approval of the unseen God came to Jesus 
through the power of his mystic nature. He 
realized in himself and in the world the pres- 
ence of God. The voice which spoke within 
was the final and authoritative voice. When 
that voice spoke, the disapproval and opposi- 
tion of men were nothing. God was the great 
reality. 

This fine, pure, clear-sighted mysticism of 
Jesus is again seen in the superiority which 
he always assigned to spiritual over physical 
values, and to eternal over temporal relations. 
Without degrading man, he exalted God. 
Without belittling life, he magnified eternity. 
He bade his disciples interpret the ominous 
signs of the times in the terms of his own pro- 
phetic vision of the coming kingdom . 2 The 
value of a hand or a foot or an eye was noth- 


1 Mark 14: 62. 


* Mark 13 : 2, 8, 13. 


JESUS AS A MYSTIC 


34i 


in g compared with the integrity of the life of 
the spirit. These should be sacrificed without 
hesitation, if they decreased the soul’s worth . 1 
The “abundance of the things” which a man 
possessed had no power to determine the final 
meaning of his life . 2 Indeed the compensa- 
tions to the spirit’s life for the sacrifice of the 
body’s comforts were a hundredfold . 3 The 
only treasures which were beyond the reach of 
human envy and time’s decay were those which 
were laid up in heaven . 4 When the great crisis 
was upon his own life, and the immeasurable 
power of the temptation of ambition was mak- 
ing its appeal, he yet maintained the same pro- 
portion between physical and spiritual values, 
seeing the infinite superiority of the latter, as 
he answered that temptation, “Thou shalt wor- 
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve.” ‘ The beatitudes, which are an attempt 
on the part of Jesus to make others see life 
from his point of view, disclose that consistent 
mysticism by which he saw the eternal rela- 
tions, and maintained the supremacy of spir- 
itual values . 6 When his followers came back 

1 Mark 9: 43. 45, 47- * Luke 12: 15. * Mark 10: 29, 30. 

4 Matthew 6: 20. 6 Matthew 4: 10. # Matthew 5: 3-12. 


342 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


to him after a journey in which they had suc- 
ceeded in carrying his buoyant life and healing 
power to many, while he rejoiced greatly in 
their success, he reminded them, in the midst 
of their exultation, that there was no joy to be 
compared with the assurance of having their 
names written in heaven . 1 

Such constant insistence upon the superior- 
ity of spiritual values could never have been 
made except by a man to whom spiritual facts 
were supremely real. This is a true descrip- 
tion of Jesus. The mystic glow was upon him. 
The mystic’s power of vision was strong and 
true. The ultimate reality of Jesus’ life was 
his consciousness of a great Presence. Trees, 
flowers, mountains, men were not so real as 
God. They were the symbols of which God 
was the essence. God was not interpreted in 
terms of them, but they in terms of God. The 
world was a world of spiritual realities. After 
his baptism the compulsion of the Spirit was 
upon him, for “the Spirit driveth him forth 
into the wilderness.” 2 While he was yet in the 
wilderness, “the angels ministered unto him.” 8 
In the moment of his betrayal in Gethsemane 
1 Luke 10:20. 2 Mark 1:12. 8 Mark 1:13. 


JESUS AS A MYSTIC 


343 


he felt the presence of “more than twelve le- 
gions of angels” who might be called to his 
assistance . 1 On the mount of transfigura- 
tion Moses and Elijah were so real that he 
talked with them . 2 He spoke of God as “my 
Father.” 3 So vital to his life, so necessary to 
his soul, so real and constant a presence had 
that Father been to him, that the supreme 
agony was not physical suffering, nor the re- 
jection and scoffing of men, but the momen- 
tary loss of his consciousness of God . 4 That cry 
of Jesus at the ninth hour, by the very contrast 
which it offers to the customary peace of his 
spirit, is one of the highest proofs of how 
supremely necessary had become the ability to 
see and feel and know the presence of his 
Father. It was the cry of the great, pure, true- 
sighted mystic, deprived for a moment of the 
sight of God. 

The theory of life upon which this mysticism 
rested, Jesus reduced to as great simplicity of 
words, as full reality of experience: “Blessed 
are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.” ‘ 

1 Matthew 26: 53. 3 Mark g \ 4. 8 Matthew 18: 35. 

4 Matthew 27: 46. 8 Matthew 5: 8. 




THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ PRESENCE 




XXVI 

THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ PRESENCE 

That Jesus created a profound impression 
upon his own generation we have already 
noticed . 1 As soon as he entered upon his public 
activity, he became a conspicuous figure. He 
produced a great sensation. His methods were 
such as to attract attention. This was a neces- 
sary accessory of his mission. The teacher 
must always use every legitimate means for 
making his truth attractive and interesting. 
The more important the truth, the greater the 
responsibility of the teacher to use all proper 
channels into the minds of the people. Jesus 
felt the necessity supremely because of the 
supremacy of his message. A recent writer 3 
has called attention to the fact that, in spite of 
all prophecy and all expectation which the Jews 
had of a Messiah, Jesus was an “infinite sur- 
prise” to his people. 

These methods of Jesus, by which he startled 
the men of his time, were always the natural 

x “ Jesus and the Passer-by.” 2 Gordon, “Ultimate 
Conceptions of Faith.” 

347 


348 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


outcome of his personality. He was never 
more than himself, nor less. He did not 
assume methods unnatural to him for the sake 
of attracting attention and producing an im- 
pression. His responsibility for his message, 
as it made its appeal to his sense of duty, 
found within him resources of ability which 
responded naturally. Behind every act which 
created a stir among the witnesses, was the 
whole man, never an actor. When he could not 
answer with his whole manhood to the de- 
mands which men made for evidences of his 
power, though he was grieved with such indi- 
cations of spiritual lack, he refused to stoop to 
any unreal or undignified performance . 1 Be- 
hind every effect which he produced by his 
presence or by his methods we can discern his 
personality. 

The effect which Jesus produced upon the 
people of his time was one of mystery, and 
wonder and awe. They had never seen or 
heard of any man with whom he could be com- 
pared. Some of them went no farther than 
simply to gaze and wonder. They undertook 
no explanation of the phenomenon. At this 


1 Mark 8: 1 2 . 


THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ PRESENCE 349 


fact we cannot be surprised ; for the masses of 
people, especially in times of ignorance of 
cause and effect, have not undertaken to philos- 
ophize. There were some, however, in whom 
wonder led up to the question of the explana- 
tion of the person who produced it. They 
asked themselves who he could be. There 
were some who went still farther. They felt 
that only one explanation was possible. Na- 
tional and personal hope among the Jews had 
for centuries shaped itself into the expectation 
of the coming of an ideal man. This hope 
had taken many forms. Often it was purely 
political. Sometimes it was deeply religious. 
Far as this man Jesus seemed to be from any 
of the ideals into which this hope had crystal- 
lized, new as were his religious ideas, strange 
as was his political theory, yet none, they felt, 
but the one who was meant to fulfil their hope 
could produce such effects as he produced. He 
must be the Messiah. 

Jesus produced these effects of mystery, and 
wonder, and awe, by his appeal to the eye. 
His methods were sometimes dramatic, yet so 
genuine and effective that they could never be 
thought of as ostentatious. The healing of 


350 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


the man with the withered hand in the syn- 
agogue was performed amid surroundings so 
impressive, and by a method so dramatic, mak- 
ing its appeal to the eye so strongly, that the 
people were all amazed. When the palsied 
man arose and walked forth from the house in 
which and about which the people had gath- 
ered in crowds, the sight was so surprising 
“that they were all amazed, and glorified God, 
saying, We never saw it on this fashion.” 1 
The cure of that blind man who was also deaf 
was by such a method and so impressive, that 
the few who saw it, and the greater number 
who came soon to know of it, “were beyond 
measure astonished, saying, He hath done all 
things well .” 2 After the storm had ceased 
upon the lake, and the disciples realized the 
spectacular character of the event which they 
had witnessed, “they feared exceedingly, and 
said one to another, Who then is this? ” 3 

The effects of mystery, and wonder, and awe 
which Jesus produced were brought about even 
more by the authority of his teaching than by 
the appeal which his methods made to the eye. 
In the simplicity, clearness, certitude, majesty 

1 Mark 2: 12. * Mark 7: 37. * Mark 4: 41. 


THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ PRESENCE 351 


of the truth, as it came from him, was some- 
thing* more surprising* than the power which 
showed itself in dramatic deeds. In the syna- 
gogue at Capernaum, where he taught the peo- 
ple on the Sabbath, “they were astonished at 
his teaching: for he taught them as having 
authority, and not as the scribes,” 1 and when 
they had both seen and listened in their amaze- 
ment “they questioned among themselves, say- 
ing, What is this ? a new teaching ! with author- 
ity he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and 
they obey him.” 2 It was the religious teaching 
of Jesus in the temple in his later days, which 
caused it to be said that “they marvelled greatly 
at him.” 3 For a considerable period the won- 
der and esteem in which the populace held 
Jesus threw their safeguard around him, so 
that those who sought to destroy him dared 
not, “for all the multitude was astonished at 
his teaching .” 4 Even in his own country, 
when he taught there, the people were deeply 
moved to wonder at his teaching, so that 
“many hearing him were astonished, saying, 
Whence hath this man these things? and, 


1 Mark 1 : 22. 

* Mark 12: 17. 


2 Mark 1 : 27. 

4 Mark 11: 18. 


352 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


What is the wisdom that is given unto this 
man ? ” 1 This was the effect which he pro- 
duced in a place where he could “do no mighty 
work, save that he laid his hands upon a few 
sick folk, and healed them.” 1 

Great as was the wonder produced by the 
methods of Jesus, which appealed to the eye, 
and by the authority of Jesus’ teaching, which 
appealed to the mind, yet greater was the won- 
der produced by the personality of Jesus, which 
appealed immediately to the heart. Personality 
is the most mysterious power in the universe. 
Methods are an expression of it. The utterance 
of truth, when that truth comes from experi- 
ence, is an expression of it. But that which 
expresses itself is greater than the expression 
can be. Jesus made the greatest impression 
upon those who knew him through that inde- 
scribable and indefinable fact which we call per- 
sonality. It was readily seen by those who 
knew him, that the most wonderful fact about 
him was himself. Some of the effects produced 
upon men by the personality of Jesus we shall 
study in the next chapter. We speak of the 
fact here in order to keep the true relation 


1 Mark 6: 2, 5. 


THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ PRESENCE 353 


between what Jesus did and spoke, and what he 
was. Mighty deeds and authoritative teaching 
must take the second place, even in respect of 
the effects which they produced upon men. 
His deeds were as the leaves of a tree. His 
teachings were as the blossom and the fruit. 
His personality was the life of the tree. The 
man who thinks most about the tree is the man 
who is most clearly aware of the superior 
wonder of its life over its leaves and its blos- 
soms. The men who knew Jesus best, who 
observed him most closely, who thought most 
about him, were the men who wondered most 
at his personality. Principal Fairbairn noticed 
this fact when he said, “The most mysterious 
thing about him is the increase, with increased 
knowledge, of the feeling of the awful loveli- 
ness and sanctity of his person.” 1 

Many of those who tried to explain the mys- 
tery, and wonder, and awe which Jesus pro- 
duced concluded that he must be the expected 
Messiah. In other words, they were forced to 
identify him with the highest ideal of manhood, 
with the noblest expectation of a leader which 
the nation had cherished, with that man about 
1 " The Place of Christ in Modern Theology.” 


354 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


whom human hope gathered, with that man 
who was to bring them to God, with that man 
to whom they applied the various names, the 
“Son of God/' the “Son of man,” the “Son of 
David,” “the Messiah,” “the Christ.” This 
conclusion was based upon observation of the 
man and thought upon the facts observed. It 
was the natural outcome of what Jesus did, said 
and was. Jesus did not force the conclusion 
upon the minds of people. He, so far as pos- 
sible, left them free to draw their own conclu- 
sions about him. The result was a justification 
from the people of the decision which Jesus 
had reached before the beginning of his public 
career. 

Those who are reported to have reached this 
conclusion may be divided into two groups. 
First, there were the sick and the insane, upon 
whom he had performed or was about to per- 
form cures. The benefit which they received 
stirred their gratitude to express itself in the 
highest possible praise. The work which he 
did was such, it seemed to them, as could be 
done only by the Messiah. The very approach 
of his commanding personality, the contact of 
his majestic will, was felt with such power as, 


THE EFFECTS OF JESUS ’ PRESENCE 355 


they concluded, could come only from the Mes- 
siah. Blind Bartimseus of Jericho, as soon as 
he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was near, 
“began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of 
David, have mercy on me.” 1 The reputation 
which Jesus had already made must have 
shaped such a hope in the blind man, and must 
have added to the influences which made his 
cure possible. Strikingly similar is the record 
of the two blind men who “followed him, cry- 
ing out, and saying, Have mercy on us, thou 
son of David.” 2 The influence of Jesus’ pres- 
ence is notable in the case of the pathetic in- 
cident of the neglected, untamed, insane man 
who dwelt in the tombs in the country of the 
Gerasenes. Even when Jesus was afar off the 
man recognized in his unreasoning instinct that 
there was some relation between this man and 
himself. For “he ran and worshipped him; 
and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, 
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son 
of the Most High God? ” * That the recogni- 
tion of such a relation was common is indicated 
by the statement: “The unclean spirits, when- 

1 Mark 10: 47. a Matthew 9: 27. 

• Mark 5 : 7* 


356 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


soever they beheld him, fell down before him, 
and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.” 1 
Another class of persons reached the same 
conclusion. They were people who exercised 
sound and deliberate judgment. Their conclu- 
sion was not momentary, nor was it based upon 
any material favor just received, or about to 
be received. In some cases it was reached 
after the most careful and diligent observation 
and acquaintance with Jesus during a long 
period. These people also found themselves 
identifying Jesus with their own highest ideals 
of manhood. The sense of wonder, mystery 
and awe which he inspired in them they could 
account for only by recognizing in him that 
one about whom had gathered the hopes of the 
centuries, eager expectations of the individual, 
and a certain mystery, as of one beyond the 
range of human experience. When Jesus 
came to John the Baptist to be baptized the 
prophet recognized at once as by a deep pro- 
phetic instinct that the relation between them 
should be reversed. “I have need to be baptized 
of thee, and comest thou to me?”* Multi- 
tudes were asking the question, “Is this the 
1 Mark 3: 11. 2 Matthew 3: 14. 


THE EFFECTS OF JESUS , PRESENCE 357 


son of David ?” 1 This question they an- 
swered for themselves at a later time when 
Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusa- 
lem; for they followed, crying, “Hosanna to 
the son of David : Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the high- 
est.” 8 The centurion, who stood by and wit- 
nessed the death of Jesus, reached the same 
decision, for, adopting the terms of the people 
among whom he served his emperor, he said, 
“Truly this man was the Son of God.” 8 His 
disciples who had observed him closely for 
months, and in whom a great conclusion had 
been working itself out, expressed themselves 
when they were in the boat upon the lake : “Of 
a truth thou art the Son of God,” 4 and again 
at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter voiced the 
thoughts which had been waiting for utterance 
in the minds of all the disciples, “Thou art the 
Christ .” 8 

No more distinct impression is made upon 
one who reads the Gospels than the impression 
that Jesus, as he went about the common af- 
fairs of his life, performing the duties which 

1 Matthew 12: 23. 2 Matthew 21 : 9. 8 Mark 15: 39. 

4 Matthew 14: 33- 8 Mark 8: 29. 


358 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


he felt constituted his work in the world, cre- 
ated upon people a sense of mystery, of won- 
der, and of awe. Some of those who tried to 
account for this feeling which his presence cre- 
ated, came to the conclusion that he was the 
Messiah. 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS OF JESUS’ 
PERSONALITY 















J 







ft 












XXVII 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS OF JESUS’ 
PERSONALITY 

The reading of the biography of a great 
man leaves upon one the impression that all 
has not been said. There is something which 
no biographer can catch. After all relation- 
ships of the life have been described, there re- 
mains a large residuum which lies outside the 
realm of description. A book cannot convey it 
to those who have known the man, more than 
raised letters can convey to the blind the 
impression of the light of a star. But though 
biography fails to give “a local habitation and 
a name” to that final essence of personality, it 
carries a great portion of it in solution. It can 
be read between the lines. It can be discerned 
in its subtle effects. It must be reproduced in 
the sympathetic imagination of the reader. To 
take one up in the spirit into the Patmos where 
the great man has lived, is all that any biog- 
rapher can do. Virgil can go through Purga- 
tory with Dante, but not through Paradise. 

361 


362 WHO THEN IS THIS 

The biographer can lead a reader up through 
those processes by which a great soul has found 
its way to the perfect freedom of the highest 
personality. That spirit which has inspired the 
great soul, his Beatrice, must then take the 
place of the biographer. Only in the spirit of 
a great man can the deepest elements of that 
great man’s personality be appreciated. Even 
Morley can do no more for Gladstone than pre- 
pare the way by which we can enter into deeper 
realms. Even Macaulay can do no more to 
reproduce the spirit of the Earl of Chatham 
than to make such general statements as these : 
“The enthusiasm of the orator infected all who 
heard him,” and “The ardor of his soul had set 
the whole kingdom on fire.” Those who have 
heard Beecher, and Brooks, and Drummond, 
can make their sermons or addresses living 
things. Those who have not heard them must 
read their spirit into their words before they can 
enter into the deeper meaning. 

After all the different phases of the person- 
ality of Jesus which can be defined and de- 
scribed have been studied, we are conscious of 
a great residuum. A part of this can be under- 
stood only by those who have allowed his 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS 363 

biographers to lead them up into the spirit in 
which he lived. There they must be left to go 
farther into the realm of feeling and will and 
thought, under the guidance of their own in- 
spired and deep-seeking imagination. The last 
step which we can take into the indescribable 
is that which we take by seeing those evi- 
dences of the power, the charm, the influence of 
Jesus' personality through some effects which 
it produced upon others, apart from the effects 
of surprising deeds, or strangely authoritative 
teaching. This separation is of course not 
perfect, for personality is so closely related to 
word and deed as never wholly to be torn apart 
from them. Yet there was something in the 
presence of Jesus which made its profound 
effects upon those who touched his life. In 
part we must read between the lines. In part 
his biographers lead us into the presence of 
these deeper facts. 

There was something about the presence of 
Jesus which stirred the guilty conscience. His 
bearing was so full of the dignity of righteous- 
ness; his voice was so mellow with the richness 
of sympathy ; his eye was so clear and piercing 
with the consciousness of purity; his face was 


364 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


so serene with the calmness of a perfect inward 
peace ; his brow, though shaded by the approach 
of suffering, was yet so radiant by the unfailing 
light of faith, that in his presence hypocrisy 
stood exposed, sin stamped with the mark of 
its real vileness, the conscience stricken as by 
the lightning’s flash. We are conscious as we 
read that the total effect which Jesus produced 
upon Pharisee and scribe in the temple court 
was not due to the fact that he applied the 
name “hypocrites” to them repeatedly . 1 This 
accounts for only a part of that enmity which 
was so bitter that they sought to destroy him. 
It accounts neither for the fact that “they mar- 
velled greatly at him,” 2 nor for the fact that 
“no man after that durst ask him any ques- 
tion.” * In addition there was a singular 
effect which the man made upon them. Con- 
science within answered in terrible echo to the 
voice without, and made them afraid and si- 
lent. There was a dignity in his righteousness 
like the dignity of a judge. 

In the light of such effects of personal purity 
we can understand the story which L,uke tells 

1 Matthew 23: 13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29. 3 Mark 12: 17. 

* Mark 12: 34. 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS 


365 


us of the woman “which was ... a sinner.” 
There was a reason why she stood “behind at 
his feet, weeping.” 1 Profound also was the 
significance of the sorrow of that young man 
whom Jesus loved, when he looked upon him, 
but who went away sorrowful . 2 Weak was 
the cause and the opposition of conscience- 
stricken traders in the temple when over 
against them stood this presence of righteous 
dignity, this overwhelming power of a life un- 
stained.* Nor is an extraordinary draught of 
fishes sufficient explanation of the conduct of 
Peter, when he came and “fell down at Jesus’ 
knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sin- 
ful man, O Lord.” 4 Conscience was stirred 
as a sleeper is stirred at dead of night, when a 
flood of light comes pouring over him. Ac- 
cording to the nature of the person thus illu- 
mined, was he aroused thereby to crouch in 
preparation for attack, to slink away in cow- 
ardice, or to fall down in humble recognition 
that it was the very light he had need of. 
That light was the presence of Jesus. Phari- 
sees and scribes crouched to spring. The rich 


1 Luke 7: 37, 38. 
* Mark 11: 15. 


* Mark 10: 22. 
4 Luke 5: 8. 


366 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


young man and the money-changers slunk 
away. Peter and the sinful woman knelt in 
recognition. 

The presence of Jesus often produced an 
inexplicable impression. Vague wonder took 
hold upon many when the deeper phases of 
Jesus* personality revealed themselves. Those 
strange sensations were upon men which thrill 
them in the presence of that which fascinates, 
and calls out admiration, while it is yet unac- 
countable. The centurion came under this 
strong influence which went out from Jesus, 
for he came, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy 
that thou shouldest come under my roof.” 1 In 
the presence of the strange, calm tranquillity of 
Jesus at his trial, Pilate was made to marvel . 3 
Unanswerable questions shaped themselves in 
the minds of the people of Nazareth when he 
whom they had thought of merely as a fellow 
citizen “began to teach in the synagogue.” * 
They were taken up into their own surprise and 
wonder. What he said does not account for 
the whole effect. They were aware of some- 
thing in him which they could not explain. 
His deeper personality stood out before them. 

1 Matthew 8: 8. * Mark 15: 5. 3 Mark 6: 2. 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS 


3 67 


They could only say one to another, “Whence 
hath this man these things? and, What is 
the wisdom that is given unto this man, and 
what mean such mighty works wrought by his 
hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of 
Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and 
Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here 
with us ?” 1 

This strange, vague, unaccountable impres- 
sion produced by the appearing of the deep real- 
ity of Jesus' personality took strong hold upon 
the disciples. Once as they were going up to 
Jerusalem with him it came flooding them and 
overwhelming them. No surprising deed is 
associated with it, no word of startling author- 
ity. It is clear that Jesus was intently thinking, 
as they went on, of that which was to overtake 
him in Jerusalem. Of his trial, of his death, 
and of his rising again, was he thinking. As 
he fixed his attention upon these things, and as 
hope mounted up within him above the worst 
that might befall, his deeper self appeared. 
Triumphant faith and tranquil love possessed 
him, and he was as one changed, so that those 


1 Mark 6: 2, 3. 


368 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


who were with him “were amazed; and they 
that followed were afraid.” 1 

Another transfiguration is described with 
more detail. This also was in close relation 
to Jesus' thought of his coming death. Six 
days before Jesus had told his disciples, per- 
haps for the first time with definiteness, of the 
fatal result of his work ; and immediately after, 
even as they were coming away, he spoke of 
his rising from the dead. The concentration 
of his thought in meditation and in prayer 
brought forth that inner consciousness which 
could not always appear, and diffused it over 
his face, changing his appearance so that even 
“his garments became glistering, exceeding 
white.” 2 The soul on great occasions some- 
times leaps into sight, as it were, changing the 
outward man until he becomes in all respects 
like the man within. Thus came the real, full 
personality of Jesus before the disciples' eyes, 
until “they became sore afraid,” and Peter, 
the ever-ready, “wist not what to answer.” 8 
Upon Jesus the strange influence lingered, for 
when he had come down from the mountain, 
“straightway all the multitude, when they saw 
l Mark 10:32. 7 Mark 9: 3. ’Mark 9:6. 


NOTABLE EXPRESSIONS 369 

him, were greatly amazed, and running to him 
saluted him.” 1 

This rich and indefinable influence of Jesus* 
presence was supremely attractive to some men. 
It constituted an irresistible power by which 
they felt themselves drawn to him. It produced 
within them the sense of his great lovableness. 
It created peace and joy in his companionship. 
It calmed their fears. It called out their com- 
plete devotion, and their ready obedience and 
service. It became the central and dominant 
force in their lives. This presence rose over 
them in colossal benignity, as an all-sufficient 
shelter. So strong was the appeal of this pres- 
ence to Simon and Andrew, to James and John, 
when Jesus said: “Come ye after me,” that 
they left nets, boat, father, “and went after 
him.” * The son of Alphseus, though “sitting 
at the place of toll,” answered the same call 
with obedience as ready . 3 When many were 
following, drawn by the strange influence of 
a great personality, he called “unto him whom 
he himself would/* and from them appointed 
twelve, “that they might be with him /* 4 Over 


1 Mark 9: 15. 
* Mark 2: 14. 


* Mark 1: 17, 20. 
4 Mark 3: 13, 14. 


370 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


these twelve men he continued to exercise the 
calm influence of his magnetic power, so that 
when they were in distress, they needed only 
the words, “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not 
afraid.” 1 By that power of his presence he 
bound them to himself up to the last, when he 
gave them the final token of his desire that they 
should think of him in the bread which was his 
body, and the wine which was his “blood of 
the covenant .” 2 The strongest motive which 
he could bring to bear upon the few devoted 
followers, or upon the many who listened to 
him, was the appeal of his personality, calling 
men up with him into the tranquil life : “Come 
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest.” 3 He knew that there 
was no force in God’s universe so strong as the 
power of personality. 

1 Mark 6: so. 2 Mark 14: 22, 24. 8 Matthew 11 : 28. 


WHO THEN IS THIS 



XXVIII 


WHO THEN IS THIS 

Jesus allowed the power of his personality to 
make its own impression. He went calmly 
about his work, leaving its consequences to 
justify it. So fully did he trust that the final 
result would embody the truth, that he made no 
determined effort to shape that result. He 
knew that wonder is a child which rapidly 
grows into the manhood of reflection. He who 
looks in awe upon a mystery soon begins to ask 
the meaning of the mystery. The people who 
were impressed by the strange power of Jesus’ 
personality soon began to ask questions as to 
its meaning. The natural outcome of the 
impression which Jesus made upon the disciples 
was that question of the disciples, asked after 
a moment of special surprise, “Who then is 
this ?” 1 

Nor can the mind today rest without some 
answer to this question. Having studied the 
elements of the personality of Jesus, as they are 

1 Mark 4: 41. 

373 


374 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


described in the Gospels, we are forced to put 
those elements together, and, looking at this 
splendid total, to ask again the disciples’ old 
question, “Who then is this?” We must as- 
sign Jesus to his true place in human history. 
We must make comparison of him with man- 
kind. We must seek to know his relation to 
humanity. The fact which the Gospels re- 
vealed must be put into relation to kindred 
facts of life. 

It is evident that any explanation of Jesus 
must move in the realm of personality, and 
speak in the terms of personality, since it is 
through personality that we know him. If we 
remove him into that superficial world which 
deals only with physical facts, and simply tell 
of the succession of events in his life, we have 
taken him out of life, and made him move with 
the mechanical actions of an automaton. On 
the other hand, if we remove him into the re- 
mote world of speculative thought, and reduce 
him to the terms of theological formulas, we 
have removed him from his true setting, which 
was in the midst of life; have taken from him 
the very thing which made him what he was, 
namely, life itself. We must deal with the total 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


37 5 


effect of Jesus upon human life, and that total 
was expressed in terms of personality. In the 
estimate of this man’s influence over life, we 
must use the voltage of human power. In the 
measurement of this man for the niche into 
which he should be placed, we must use the 
units of human will, and human thought, and 
human emotion. For the appreciation of his 
stature, we must place alongside him living 
men. He must be considered not in compari- 
son with laws but with persons. He must be 
thought of not as a problem but as a character . 1 

The first conclusion which follows from the 
study which we have made of the personality 
of Jesus is that he was in all things a normal 
man. In Browning’s words, there was 

“ A Face like my face ... a Man like to me, 
... a Hand like this hand.” * 

In all respects a babe at the beginning, he devel- 
oped through acquisition by the same methods 
by which all men must develop. The home 
with its maternal and paternal influences, its 
responsibilities of elder brotherhood, opened to 
him the great facts of obedience, love, and 

1 Gore. “The Incarnation of the Son of God.” 

Saul.” 


376 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


sacrifice. Nature and literature added their 
contributions as he “advanced in wisdom.” 
History and religious forms served him in his 
youthful growth. When he came to maturity, 
the necessity was upon him, as on all, to make 
the great decision as to the nature of his career. 
His decision was wrought out of much conflict 
of soul, and eager watching for the signs of 
the times. When the decision was made, it 
underwent the universal process of being pro- 
claimed, confirmed, and tested. Having en- 
tered upon that career in the footsteps of John 
the Baptist, he learned of his own powers 
through experience, by which he came to the 
double consciousness of self-confidence and 
humility. As his career progressed, experience 
ripened, all emotions deepened, and in fuller 
tenderness of sympathy, shown in his fine rela- 
tion to childhood, he entered the higher realms 
of sacrificial love. 

Moreover, nature gave its sweet ministry to 
him, with its inspirations to thought, and 
its contribution to his deeper life. Pastoral 
scenes, the mountains, the river and the lake, 
the sky and the clouds spoke to him as they 
speak to all who know how to commune with 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


377 


them. Out of his love of nature, and his deep- 
ening experience of life came forth as the 
plant from the seed, that eloquence of utter- 
ance which makes him rank, in every deeper 
sense, with the poets. In the midst of this life 
with nature and with men, we see him tempted 
with all the mighty force with which tempta- 
tion comes to great natures. Appetite, despair, 
the discouragement of misunderstandings, the 
tendency to lower ideals, all made their strong 
appeal. 

The mind of Jesus grew by human methods. 
He came into possession of knowledge as oth- 
ers did. He thought in the terms of the men 
of his times. He was open to information. His 
memory served him as the memory of those 
who lived with him. His teachings were by 
the best methods of men, as he spoke out of 
his deep, human experience. In respect of his 
will, he exercised that freedom which God has 
given to all men. He knew the meaning of 
failure and its disappointments. In the midst 
of his successes, he showed that high modesty 
which distinguishes the great among men. He 
appreciated the joy of his successes, the joy of 
power and leadership, the joy of an optimis- 


378 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


tic nature. He made friends by showing a 
friendly disposition, and kept them by giving 
as well as receiving the support and ministry 
of friendship. He lived the prayerful life. 

In all these respects Jesus was a normal man, 
a universal man. The contributions which 
the world made to his personality were of the 
same sort which the world makes to all men. 
The gifts of home and nature and experience, 
of joy and friendship and prayer, come from 
the treasure-house of God in rich bounty, but 
not with partiality. He who honestly and per- 
sistently makes his requisitions, receives them 
in great liberality. That mountain great and 
high to which we must even at the first sight 
make comparison of Jesus’ personality stands 
upon the firm, rock-built basis of man’s com- 
mon, human experience, towering up along 
with many a high mountain toward the sun 
and moon and stars of heavenly realities, by 
which they are made luminous by day and 
beautiful by night. 

Our second conclusion from this study of 
the personality of Jesus is that, while he was 
a man in all things normal, he was also a man 
in all things superior. All the common facts 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


379 


of life in which he shared become magnified as 
we see him sharing them. With the same 
starting-ground, and using the same processes, 
he yet achieved a greater manhood. His expe- 
rience was richer and deeper. Passing through 
the same unfolding process which men have 
passed, each step was to him of greater mean- 
ing and vaster content. Obliged to reach deci- 
sions as to his career, as all must do, his 
decisions, while they were equally rational, 
were of broader scope, and of bolder reach and 
daring. His relation to nature was not simply 
that of being ministered unto. He attained 
such mastery over nature as was startling to 
the people of his time, and with all the world's 
achievement has never yet been equaled. 
Those words of eloquent instruction which 
flowed from his love of nature, his sympathy 
with men, and his experience with both, were 
touched by a deeper pathos of eloquence and a 
holier and loftier light of poetry. While his 
temptations were all of the sort which men in 
all ages have known, they were more stupen- 
dous. His struggle with them was beyond any 
whose record has been remembered. They 
were proportionate, as temptations always are, 


3 8o WHO THEN IS THIS 

to the nobility of the man’s nature, and the 
loftiness of his purpose. His mind, though 
acquiring its power at the same time and in 
the same way as others of his age, reached 
out far beyond theirs. He kept his life of 
thought at absolute poise. In all efforts which 
men made to meet and conquer him he proved 
his absolute supremacy of intellect. In origi- 
nality and penetration of thought he was all 
men’s superior. 

The will of Jesus proved sufficient to meet 
all consequences of his mission. It grew in 
stateliness and grandeur as the end came near. 
Though left free to do so, he never modi- 
fied his plans. In self-control he stood so 
far above his contemporaries that they were 
obliged to marvel at him. In the midst of his 
failures, he forced himself to think of others 
and not of himself. The authority of his will 
mastered the weaker wills of many, though it 
was not coercive, but always beneficent. As a 
friend men sought him out, in the times of 
their fear and discouragement, above all others 
to whom they might have gone. In his life of 
prayer he was eminently able to forget himself, 
and rise to such levels that others desired to 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


381 


learn the pathway of such an ascent. Of all 
men who have been able sincerely to say “I am 
meek and lowly of heart,” he was preeminent 
for the self-confidence with which he pro- 
claimed the truth and performed his work. 

It is evident that in estimating Jesus in 
terms of personality, it is impossible to stop 
with the statement that he was in all respects 
a normal man. From the normal and through 
the normal he rose to clear superiority. Out of 
those ledges which all men quarry, he carved 
so well, building upon such deep foundation, 
that the temple of life which he reared stands 
looming up, in purer architecture, in finer sym- 
metry, in loftier grandeur, than any which has 
else been built. The mountain of his personal- 
ity, as in such comparison we look along the 
range of human life, is seen to be the highest 
summit of them all. 

In estimating Jesus as in all things normal, 
and in noticing that through the normal he 
rose to be in all things superior, we have reck- 
oned with only a part of the facts of his per- 
sonality. We have only looked over the index 
to the first chapters of his book of life. To 
neglect all of the greatest chapters would be 


382 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


unfair, both to the book and to the author, 
while we should ourselves be losing that higher 
value to which these others have been leading 
us. A further study of the facts leads us by 
necessary logic to the conclusion that Jesus 
was in all things a man complete. 

That process of development which made 
him in all things normal, and which related 
him to the universal experience of man, was 
neither retarded as it proceeded, nor stopped 
at any point by impassable barriers. Every 
function of life expanded to its full human 
capacity. He developed as that river does 
which serves its perfect uses at every stage of 
its progress, bubbling with crystal clearness at 
its springs; rippling with merry laughter as it 
splashes over its stones; catching the summer 
verdure, the autumn glory, and the winter 
whiteness as it flows through quiet meadows; 
speeding the shuttles with mighty power as 
deepening it sweeps on through great cities; 
bearing the ships of all the nations as it opens 
toward the sea, and at last pouring its great 
contribution into the ocean without a murmur 
of protest as it passes out across the bar. 

The decision of Jesus as to his mission, 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


383 


which reached the highest point of human 
attainment, he carried through to the end, as 
all the facts of life became polarized about it, 
and contributed to justify and strengthen it. 
Through his experience he reached both a 
perfect humility and a perfect self-confidence. 
The limitations of human attainment and the 
mighty power of personality he completely 
reconciled, as he kept the balance also between 
his growing insight into the sinfulness of men, 
and his hope in the savableness of men. His 
sacrificial love bore him on to the sublime con- 
summation of his mission, while it also gave 
him grace and attractiveness in the eyes of 
children. The spiritual goal of human life in 
the supremacy of the soul he reached, going 
on into the resurrection life as to the next step 
in his development. Nature was always the 
shadow of the eternal reality. Temptation, 
though supreme in magnitude, was fully con- 
quered. His mind was a stranger to fear, in 
the possession of truth. His will was of the 
sort that proved adamantine to the washing of 
all waves of opposition. In failure he knew 
how to face death with a hero's unflinching 
courage. In success he subordinated himself. 


384 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


In the joy of sympathy and of optimism he 
realized the deeper meanings of human joy. 
His friendship was of the sturdy sort which is 
prepared to give or to receive shocks, when its 
own purification demands them. In sympathy 
and love he sounded the depths of emotional 
experience, bringing forth from them such 
power that courage and strength came at his 
touch. His life of prayer was so full and rich 
that though he was by nature “meek and 
lowly,” yet his communion and cooperation 
with the unseen forces were such that his self- 
confidence never failed. 

In all these facts of Jesus’ personality, there 
is something which, while it is normal and 
superior, is not fully described by either of 
these terms. For it is complete. Nothing 
more could be thought of to constitute the per- 
fect man. The elements of Jesus’ personality, 
when added together, make a sphere. No part 
is lacking. The whole sphere when seen in its 
total beauty is much more wonderful than the 
mere enumeration of all the parts. This temple 
which Jesus built is not only finer and nobler 
than all other human temples, it is also com- 
plete in its symmetry, perfect in its outlines, 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


385 


stately and noble beyond criticism. As we look 
along the range of great personalities which 
have reared themselves heavenward, we read- 
ily see that there is another difference between 
this mountain and all others than the mere fact 
of its greater height. It is the only mountain 
of the whole range which has reared itself so 
high as to reach into the realm of perpetual 
snows. As we look we catch the glitter of the 
sun’s rays from off those fields of unbroken 
snow, and the mountain becomes in ever)' 
aspect what you wish in a mountain. The 
thought of Jesus rears itself to the level of 
that great summit. There you find the will 
of Jesus in the same sublimity, and there the 
emotions of Jesus. It is the summit of person- 
ality. No part of the outline of that thrice- 
buttressed peak is lacking. There are no 
words which will describe it except such as 
speak of absolute completeness. It was by 
comparison of this splendid outline with those 
which beside it showed their imperfections 
even while they revealed their greatness, that 
Lanier arrived at his conclusion : 

“ But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time, 

But Thee, O poets’ Poet, Wisdom’s 


386 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


But Thee, O man’s best Man, O love’s best love, 

O perfect life in perfect labor writ, 

O all men’s Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest — 
What if or yet, what mole, what flaw, what lapse, 
What least defect or shadow of defect, 

What rumor, tattled by an enemy, 

Of inference loose, what lack of grace 

Even in torture’s grasp, or sleep’s, or death’s — 

Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee, 

Jesus, good Paragon, thou Crystal Christ ?” 1 

Even now we have left unexplained a large 
part of the facts and effects of Jesus’ personal- 
ity. While asserting these conclusions, we are 
conscious of having drawn a circle not large 
enough to comprehend all that we have ob- 
served in our study. It is a circle of too small 
diameter. We must go beyond it before we 
can satisfy our minds that we are dealing 
fairly and fully with our theme. While observ- 
ing that through all things normal he rose in 
all things to superiority, and that superiority 
towered into completeness, we are carried on 
to the further conclusion that he was in all 
things transcendent, having passed beyond all 
possibility of measurement or of comparison. 

His early development growing into a con- 
sciousness of God utterly unique, culminated 
1 “ The Crystal.” 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


387 


in a decision which was outside the reach of 
others' hopes. Only religious fanaticism or 
insanity ever dared to aspire to such a possibil- 
ity. Such ventures have always been crushed 
by their own weight. Jesus, with all delibera- 
tion, with all sense of the magnitude of the 
task, with all humility, yet with all self-confi- 
dence, with all the concentration of a perfectly 
balanced mind, undertook to live the ideal life. 
This transcendent decision was confirmed at 
the baptism, where it was also proclaimed, 
by a transcendent experience. It was tested 
through temptations of transcendent power. 
It was carried out with transcendent patience, 
intelligence, and courage. The depths of his 
sacrificial love must be measured by the mag- 
nitude of that ideal which he first embodied in 
himself and then delivered up to be betrayed 
and crucified. The goal of all spiritual life he 
not only perfectly attained as he passed on into 
the resurrection life, but he revealed it in a 
transcendent form. While his temptations 
gathered force as his own ideals grew loftier, 
he came out from every conflict with them 
without evidence of sin. In his healing activ- 
ity the authority of Jesus' will lies beyond the 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


388 

range of our measurements and comparisons. 
The depths of Jesus’ joy are unfathomable 
because they had their origins in his knowledge 
of the truth, his power of leadership, and his 
pure conscience, which are themselves too pro- 
found to explore. The worth of his friendship 
to his friends is immeasurable, not only in the 
terms of the worth of their friendships to him, 
but in any terms whatever. His self-confi- 
dence, when taken in relation with his deep, 
pure humility, is unapproachable. As it stood 
face to face with disease, and with some phases 
of nature, it is surpassed only by that same 
self-confidence as it stood proclaiming God’s 
truth, and as it asserted itself above time and 
death. Still taken in relation to his humility, 
the sort of confidence he inspired in others 
stands alone. 

Moreover, when taken in connection with 
the reserye of his nature, his self-assertions 
assume proportions which are themselves tran- 
scendent. Ranking himself above laws, in- 
stitutions, customs, and men of all the past, 
he enthroned himself at the center of the 
moral life of the world. He spoke with the 
authority of God, making strong the claim to 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


389 


have a unique right to reveal him whom he 
called his Father, while still revealing in word 
and bearing a deep humility of spirit. This 
combination of qualities carries that person 
who possessed them quite beyond the range 
of comparison and measurement. With tran- 
scendent reality he was conscious of the pres- 
ence of the unseen world and of God. His 
interpretation of all religious experiences into 
the language of the soul and of God, magnify- 
ing them above similar experiences which 
other men have felt, carried him into a realm 
where he is alone. He lived in the world of 
spiritual realities, and dealt with the facts of 
the spiritual life. The presence of this im- 
measurably enriched personality carried with 
it a certain awe and reverence and wonder 
which took hold upon those who knew him, 
sometimes bringing them to the attitude of 
worship. The appeal which he made to the 
eye, though strong, is not comparable with the 
appeal of his personality to the heart. When 
those about him were able to perceive the 
greatness of him by the side of whom they 
stood for measurement, or when the deeper 
elements of his nature became apparent, guilty 


390 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


consciences were stirred as no man else has 
ever stirred them, and an impression of inex- 
plicable wonder seized those who looked upon 
him. To the man with evil in his heart this 
man was transcendently repellent. To the man 
of pure heart this man was transcendently at- 
tractive. The strongest power which he could 
exercise over men to lead them up toward God 
was the attraction of his personality, so that 
in a moment of supreme longing over men he 
said, “Come unto me.” 

This is just the sum of the Gospels’ story: 
no more. This is the majestic fact which they 
carry in solution. This is the personality 
whom they present. We are evidently dealing 
with a fact beyond comparison. We are deal- 
ing with the normal, yet that which through 
the normal became transcendent. Our figure 
of a temple here fails us. For others have 
built temples grand and stately. This man, 
in the final review, assumes a form which is 
greater than the temple. Our figure of the 
mountain range also fails us. Other men have 
risen mountain high. This man is greater 
than any mountain. We might pronounce him 
divine, but our modern theology pronounces 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


39 * 


all men divine, so that there again we are 
brought into the range of comparisons. We 
pronounce him transcendent. That word di* 
vine has been used with meanings so diverse, 
that it has lost all definiteness. Many agree in 
using the word, who differ widely in their in- 
terpretation of it. We are sadly conscious 
today that the different senses in which it has 
been used have taken the vital meaning away 
from the term, the divinity of Jesus. But we 
must somehow express the great faith which 
once attached to it. 

Approaching Jesus through his personality, 
we cannot find reason to differ from Dr. Mar- 
tineau when he says that “the whole antithesis 
between degree and kind ... is absolutely 
empty and unmeaning when transferred to the 
sphere of moral life.” 1 Yet differences in 
degree are so vast in the moral world that 
greater differences are inconceivable. While 
still of necessity living in the same moral world 
in which all men move, Jesus is so far removed 
above other men as to make comparisons 
impossible. This vast separation by immeas- 
urable distance is what we term his transcend- 
1 Martineau, “ Hours of Thought.” 


392 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


ence. Within this word we mean to include 
all the great content which for a former gen- 
eration filled the word divinity, which is also 
the soul of that phrase of a yet earlier day, 
the deity of Christ. 

This conception of Jesus does not carry him 
outside the range of personality. We must 
remember that in this realm he always moved. 
There is always something indescribable in 
personality, always something indefinable. It 
is large enough for the man who was in all 
things transcendent to live and move and have 
his being in. For, though it is the sphere in 
which every man must express himself to other 
men, it is also the highest attribute of God. It 
is that respect in which man is made in God’s 
image. It is the highest and fullest means of 
communication between God and man. 

The transcendence of Jesus must be consid- 
ered in connection with his dependence upon 
God. Out of that it came forth, as rivers from 
their water-sources. Upon that was it built; 
by that did it continue, as arches by their key- 
stones. His message was final because he 
derived it from God. His will to labor was 
supremely effective because it was perfectly 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


393 


subjugated to the will of God. His self-confi- 
dence was absolute because he was absolutely 
sure of God’s help. Unbroken communion 
with God admitted him into the “secret place 
of the Most High.” His personality was tran- 
scendently rich because it was the reflection of 
the personality of God. Through the medium 
of this communion, the personality of God 
became embodied in him. 

The transcendence of Jesus expressed itself 
in its most important aspect through his sin- 
lessness. This was a unique fact in the history 
of human personality ; a fact fraught with sub- 
lime consequences. In spite of a profoundly 
introspective religious nature, Jesus gave no 
evidence of having found that within himself 
which suggested the need of repentance. In 
spite of a natural humility, he could always 
hold his head up in the dignity of perfect pu- 
rity in the presence of God and of men. In 
spite of temptations of tremendous seriousness 
and power, there is no hint of remorse nor of 
the consciousness of error. In spite of ab- 
solute sincerity and willingness to disclose 
his deepest religious experiences, there is no 
shadow on the picture. In spite of a con- 


394 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


science lofty and active, there is no sign of its 
chidings. In all the conflicts of his soul, he 
was so completely victorious that no scar was 
left upon him. This is a fact of supreme mo- 
ment to any one who attempts to give Jesus 
his true place in human history. We have to 
ask the question, What follows from the sin- 
lessness of Jesus? 

The first result is a perfect understanding 
of moral issues, and a complete perception of 
their meaning. The pure in heart see God. 
Perfect purity does not involve omniscience. 
It does, however, involve infallible ability to 
perceive the truth of things; to penetrate all 
shams, all deceits, all hypocrisies; to unravel 
the tangled skein of the moral life. To the 
perfectly pure heart the moral world becomes 
a simple world. Good and evil are immedi- 
ately detected. The knowledge of moral truth 
is perfect. There is ability to condemn evil 
with unfailing accuracy, and to approve the 
good without hesitation or error. Here lies 
the right of Jesus to be called the judge of men. 

The second result of sinlessness is a vital 
and unbroken communion with God. The 
absolutely pure human personality is so closely 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


395 


akin to the personality of God that a perfect 
relation is established between them. There is 
no point of enmity. There is everywhere per- 
fect confidence. The life of undisturbed purity 
therefore attains full knowledge of God, for 
it has absolute correspondence within itself to 
God. The consciousness of such a man is 
filled with God. It is always filled with God. 
His thought is so fixed upon God, that in his 
perfect correspondence with God, it becomes 
the thought of God. Therefore he can speak 
for God with utter confidence. He can stand 
before men as the representative of God. Upon 
this rests the right of Jesus to be called the 
mediator between God and man. 

The third result of the sinlessness of Jesus, 
closely related to that which has just been 
stated, is the final authority of his teaching. 
The heart of perfect purity, penetrating to the 
bottom of all moral issues, arrives at the 
unchanging truth. That truth is the finality 
of the moral world. It is not possible to go 
farther. For the thought has then arrived at 
the absolute. That truth is God's truth. Car- 
ried out into practise, it identifies the man who 
possesses it with the truth. His personality 


396 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


becomes the expression of that which is final 
and absolute. He gains the right to call men 
to follow him, and to know him, for to know 
him and follow him is to know and follow the 
truth. This brings about that result which has 
been noted of Jesus that it was “his peculiar 
greatness to have led men to God .” 1 

The fourth result of sinlessness is the infinite 
deepening and enrichment of personality. To 
this process there can be set no bounds. Those 
limitations to thought and will and love, which 
evil sets about the life, do not exist. Wings 
are not clipped. Those possibilities which re- 
main only possibilities, those capacities which 
only serve to remind men how great the con- 
ception by which their natures are planned, are 
filled and satisfied. The pure life lives in eter- 
nity. It possesses the infinite. Of this fact 
we are conscious when we review the elements 
of Jesus' personality and attempt to put them 
together and measure their sum, which is 
immeasurable. In his presence we are aware 
of being in the presence of the absolute truth, 
of the infinite will, of the eternal love. Upon 
these last two results of Jesus’ sinlessness 

1 Harnack, “ What is Christianity?" 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


397 


which we have noticed rests his right to be 
called the incarnation of God. 

From his sinlessness came also his right to 
identify himself with the Messiah. That word 
stood to the people among whom he lived for 
the ideal man. By it they expressed that desire 
for which the world has travailed from the 
creation, to bring forth the Godlike man. 
Within it were bound up the hopes of a race, 
and the deep expectation of each generation. 
Jesus took the word in this broader and higher 
meaning. He did not accept it from the people 
of his time loaded down with the false notions 
which they had associated with it. He took it 
as their highest conception of what a man 
should be. Shaking it free from all error, he 
let it stand for that. His sinlessness therefore 
gave him the right to call himself by that 
name. It gave him the right to the use of 
all words and phrases by which the people 
thought of the Messiah. It gave him the 
right to call himself or to be called by the 
names, the “Son of God,” the “Son of man,” 
“the Christ.” 

The content of such a personality, it is clear, 
cannot be meant for one generation, nor for 


39 » 


WHO THEN IS THIS 


one race. Its meaning is universal. Its rela- 
tion is to humanity. It has a meaning of pro- 
found significance for every human personality. 
If we, too, can shake that word Christ free 
from all local limitations, and racial character- 
istics, and temporary conditions, and admit it 
into the realm of the absolute personality, into 
the region of humanity’s desire and need, into 
the sanctuary of the individual’s hope, we shall 
find that this is the goal to which our study 
of Jesus from the point of view of personal- 
ity has led us, the identification of this man 
with humanity’s ideal, and we can say with 
new appreciation: “See the Christ stand!” 




























































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